Follow You Anywhere
by Tinkerchimes
Summary: Series 3 with Rose. During the Battle of Canary Wharf Mickey makes a decision that changes Rose's fate. Now with nothing to tear them apart they are able to travel on hand in hand through time and space. But forever may not be as easy as they think. Very slow burn romance.
1. The Tin Dog's Choice

"I'm sorry, but you've had it. This world's going to crash and burn. There's nothing we can do. We're going home." Pete Tyler's voice was cold and Mickey flinched at the clinical way he wrote off an entire planet, even as he followed the Director of parallel Torchwood out of the office and into the control room.

He didn't want to believe it could be true. This was _his_ world, the world he had grown up on. Even though he had left it to live on the parallel world, had a place there now if he still wanted it, _this_ would always be his home. The time he had spent on the parallel Earth had left him a changed man, a stronger man and Mickey couldn't help but wonder if his place was here now, on this world being ravaged by Cybermen and Daleks alike. Unless it really was as doomed as Pete believed.

The Doctor remained in the small office, staring out the window at the war torn city below. He was wearing those ridiculous 3D glasses again and Mickey couldn't hide his grin at how inappropriate the specs, made of simple card and coloured plastic, seemed here in this high tech building, surrounded by alien gadgetry. They would end up being significant of course and the Doctor would use them somehow to save the day, but in the meantime he looked a bit of an idiot. How Rose could fancy him so much he would never figure out.

"Jacks, take this," Pete was saying, tossing one of the dimension hoppers into the waiting hands of his wife's doppelganger. "You're coming with us."

"But they're destroying the city," Jackie exclaimed, even as her fingers wrapped around the device.

Pete looked shocked for a moment before his features softened. "I'd forgotten you could argue," he said, taking the hopper back from her and draping the chain around her neck. "It's not just London, it's the whole world. But there's another world just waiting for you, Jacks. And it's safe as long as the Doctor closes the breach." He glanced up to where the Doctor still stood, his back resolutely turned to them as if he were completely unaware of the argument going on behind him. "Doctor?"

The Doctor turned on his heel, huge smile already in place and Mickey felt his heart lighten at the sight of it. There was a plan brewing in that genius head. "Oh, I'm ready. I've got the equipment right here. Thank you, Torchwood!" He darted to a nearby terminal and began typing away furiously. "Slam it down and close off both universes."

A computerised voice came over the tannoy, "Reboot systems."

"But we can't just leave. What about the Daleks? And the Cybermen?" Rose asked as the Doctor ducked around her heading towards the levers.

He turned back to her. "They're part of the problem, and that makes them part of the solution. Oh yes!"

Mickey shook his head in amusement. There _was_ a plan and the Doctor would see to it that both worlds survived. As discretely as he could he removed the hopper from his pocket and placed it behind a computer terminal where it should stay out of sight.

"Isn't anyone going to ask?" the Doctor demanded, practically bouncing on the spot with contained energy. "What is it with the glasses?"

Naturally it was Rose who jumped to play along even though Mickey was curious about that himself. She had become so like him now, the two of them becoming some sort of double act no outsider could ever truly understand. "What is it with the glasses?"

"I can SEE that's what. Because we've got two separate worlds, but in between the two separate worlds, we've got the Void. That's where the Daleks were hiding. And the Cybermen travelled through the Void to get here. And you lot, one world to another, via the Void." His grin grew even wider. "Oh, I like that. Via the Void. Look."

He tore the glasses from his own face and helped Rose fit them over her ears. "I've been through it. Do you see?"

As Rose settled the 3D glasses on her nose the Doctor stepped back, ducking his head from side to side.

"What is it?" Rose reached out as if she were going to touch the Doctor's shoulder, but she stopped just short, hand hovering above his sleeve, fingers seeming to sift through the air.

"Void stuff."

Fortunately Rose understood what he meant by that, because Mickey didn't have a clue. "Like er… background radiation."

"That's it." The Doctor took her by the shoulders turning her to face Mickey, Jake and her parents. He stayed right behind her, arm brushing her shoulder as he pointed towards Jackie. "Look at the others. And the only one who hasn't been through the Void, your mother! First time she's looked normal in her life."

Jackie looked horrified. "Oi!" If he had been in range the Doctor would have received a slap for that comment at the very least.

The Doctor turned, running towards the wall that was also the breach between two worlds, Rose skipping after him. "But the Daleks lived inside the Void. They're bristling with it. Cybermen, all of them. I just open the Void and reverse. The Void stuff gets sucked back inside."

"Pulling them all in!" Rose cried excitedly, making a fist and yanking it towards her chest.

"Pulling them all in!" the Doctor echoed, copying her gesture exactly.

Sometimes Mickey wondered if they rehearsed these things.

"Sorry, what's the Void?" he asked, but almost regretted speaking when both Rose and the Doctor turned to him as if they had forgotten there was anyone else in the room.

"The dead space," the Doctor said, much of the exuberance gone from his voice. "Some people call it Hell."

Mickey smiled approvingly. "So you're sending the Daleks and Cybermen to Hell." He glanced back at Jake, who was frowning like he was struggling to keep up. "Man, I told you he was good."

Rose didn't seem to share in the celebratory mood that was beginning to settle around the rest of the room. "But it's like you said. We've all got Void stuff." She glanced down at her own hand, still wearing the 3D glasses. "Me too, because we went to that parallel world." The Doctor was suddenly beside her, standing far closer than was merely friendly. "We're all contaminated. We'll get pulled in."

"That's why you've got to go."

So he was planning on doing it by himself then. Even Mickey could see the glaring hole in that plan. Good job he was staying. And Rose too, once the Doctor stopped being thick.

"Back to Pete's world," the Doctor continued. "Hey, we should call it that. Pete's World." He glanced over at Pete with a faint smile around his lips, a poor shadow of his earlier beaming grin. Rose never looked away from the Doctor's face, as if she were trying to read some hidden joke there. "I'm opening the Void, but only on this side. You'll be safe on that side."

Pete nodded, impatient to get this over with. "And then you close it, for good?"

"The breach itself is soaked in Void stuff. In the end it'll close itself. And that's it. Kaput!" The Doctor clicked his tongue at the end of his final word, but Mickey could see, by the tension of the Time Lord's shoulders, just how much effort it was costing him to appear unaffected by what he was suggesting. It had taken Mickey a long time to come to terms with how the Doctor and Rose felt about each other, but he knew now, probably better than either of them did, that the two of them were hopelessly besotted with each other. It must be killing the Doctor to suggest Rose go off to a parallel world where he wouldn't be able to follow.

When Rose spoke, her voice was quiet, small even. "But you stay on this side?"

Mickey had been wondering about that one too. If he was going to stay here to help, he wanted to be sure he wasn't volunteering for a one way trip to hell. "You're sure you won't get pulled in?" he asked, just to make sure.

For a moment it seemed like the Doctor hadn't heard him. He looked at Rose and she stared back, confusion and heartbreak in her eyes. Then the moment was broken and the Doctor burst back into life, sprinting back to the office. "That's why I got these." He came back to stand between Mickey and Pete, now holding one of those huge magnetic devices he had risked his life for only minutes before. "I'll just have to hold on tight. I've been doing it all my life."

"I'm supposed to go." It wasn't a question. Rose still spoke in that sad, little voice, while she looked only at the Doctor, everyone else in the room just a backdrop to her breaking heart.

"Yeah." The Doctor didn't even glance her way, turning to drop the magnaclamp behind him.

"To another world, and then it gets sealed off."

"Yeah," the Doctor said again, this time turning his back on her completely to focus all of his attention on a nearby terminal. Suddenly Mickey knew what the long look from before was about. The Doctor had been saying goodbye. Now he was going to pretend he didn't care in an attempt to make her leave quietly. And the Doctor used to call _him_ an idiot.

"Forever."

The Doctor didn't even answer her that time, just typed away like he hadn't even heard her.

A small smirk appeared on Rose's face and she finally glanced away from the Doctor. "That's not going to happen," she told the room at large.

There was an explosion above them and the room shook. Mickey reached out to steady Jackie, but Pete was already holding her. Both armies were outside now; if they were attacking the building one or both of them must have figured out where they were, might even suspect what they were doing.

"We haven't got time to argue. The plan works. We're going. You too. All of us." Pete stormed towards the breach wall, gesturing for everyone to follow him. Mickey tagged along at the back, hoping no one realised he wasn't wearing his hopper. There was no reason to go back, except for maybe Jackie, but she would have Pete. And he had a feeling the Doctor would need him for this; even if the man himself seemed convinced he could manage alone.

"No, I'm not leaving him," Rose insisted.

Jackie followed behind Pete, shouting along with Rose, "I'm not going without her."

"Oh, my God. We're going!" Pete snapped, finally at the end of his patience, if he had ever had any to begin with.

But Jackie wasn't backing down. "I've had twenty years without you, so button it. I'm not leaving her."

"You've got to," Rose broke in, glancing between Pete and Jackie. Mickey remembered the story of the day she had met her proper dad. He knew how much the idea of her mum and dad together again meant to her, but Jackie was as stubborn as her daughter.

"Well, that's tough."

"Mum," Rose began as the computerised voice intoned that there were three minutes until the system had finished rebooting. "I've had a life with you for nineteen years, but then I met the Doctor, and all the things I've seen him do. For me, for you, for all of us. For the whole stupid planet and every planet out there. He does it alone, mum. But not anymore, because now he's got me."

Rose was so focused on convincing her mother that this was the right thing to do that she hadn't noticed the way that Pete and the Doctor were exchanging glances and she didn't see the Doctor step up behind her, hopper in hand until he draped the chain around her neck.

Pete, who had retrieved his own hopper from inside his suit jacket, instantly pressed the button and they were gone, leaving Mickey staring at the Doctor, allowing a little of his irritation to shine through.

"Yeah," Mickey said, watching the Doctor's expression shift from broken to confusion at the sound of his voice. "That's not gonna work. All you'll do is hack her off."

"Mickey? What are you doing?"

"Obviously I'm staying to help. Got no reason to go back. And you're gonna need some help." Mickey nodded his head toward the two levers behind him.

"Help?" the Doctor scoffed. "From you?"

Mickey smirked. "Well if nothing else you're gonna need someone to stop Rose from murdering you when she gets back."

The Doctors face shuttered instantly. "She's not coming back."

Right on cue Rose reappeared in the centre of the room, hands crossed over the hopper still around her neck. "I think this is the on switch," she said cheekily, but her voice shook over the words, knowing at least one of the people waiting would not be pleased to see her.

"You were saying," Mickey said snidely.

The Doctor rushed over to her, taking her by the shoulders and shaking her slightly, as if that would make her see sense. "Once the breach collapses, that's it. You will never be able to see her again. Your own mother!"

Rose didn't even flinch. "I made my choice a long time ago, and I'm never going to leave you. So what can I do to help?" The Doctor stared at her in disbelief and Mickey felt guilty for witnessing such a personal moment. Or he would have done if the world weren't ending around them.

"Rose," Mickey called and she whirled to face him, her eyes wide with surprise. Typical, she hadn't even realised he had stayed behind. "Did you say goodbye to your mum? Properly I mean. You won't get another chance."

Rose's face fell and Mickey had his answer. "Go," he told her. "I won't let him start without you."

"And how will you stop me?" The Doctor was clearly angry. No one was doing what they were told and he always seemed to take that personally.

"Well I reckon it's a two person job," Mickey said casually. "And you know it too. Two clamps, two levers. How are you gonna do both, eh?" The computer announced they only had two minutes until the reboot.

"Fine," the Doctor almost snarled at him. "Rose, go say goodbye, but if you insist on coming back then be here before the system reboots. We can't wait any longer than that. Two minutes!"

Rose nodded determinedly. "Don't let him start early," she ordered Mickey and pressed the button, disappearing instantly, leaving Mickey alone with the Doctor once again.

"Those coordinates over there, set them all at six. And hurry up," the Doctor yelled.

"Get away from me!" Rose heard as she reappeared on Pete's World. Her mother was sobbing so hard she was shaking as she tried to push Pete away, tears streaking her mascara.

"Mum," Rose said sadly.

Jackie whipped around, her eyes wide with hope as she reached for Rose. "Rose, darling, you came back."

"The Doctor's giving me time to say goodbye," Rose told her. "I can't stay long, but I need you to know that this is my choice, that I…" she paused, swallowed hard and tried again. "I love him, mum."

Jackie smiled through her tears. "Don't be daft. Of course you do. And he loves you."

Rose scoffed. "I don't know about that, but I can't leave him. I'm gonna stay with him."

"Then I'll come back with you." Jackie turned back to Pete. "Give me one of them yellow things."

"No, mum," Rose touched her shoulder gently to draw her attention back. "You've travelled through the void now, you won't be safe. The Doctor only has two magnaclamps and there're already three of us. Besides, this is your second chance. You can't give up on that just for me. I won't let you."

She glanced up at Pete, who was watching her with understanding in his eyes. It was the first time he actually looked anything like her dad. "You look after her," she told him sternly, feeling her own eyes prickling as she fought to keep the tears from falling.

"I will," he agreed. "You know, I think I would have liked having a daughter."

Rose gave him a watery smile. "Maybe you still will." She looked back to her mum and felt her throat tighten at the thought of all the things she would miss, would never know. "It's not too late. I want you to have a fantastic life," she told her. Her voice sounded wobbly now, but she needed to get this out. "And know that I'm doing the same. Don't pine away and miss out on life, because I'll be out there, saving planets, meeting aliens and seeing things no one else ever will. And that's brilliant, so don't mourn me. And then I won't need to mourn you, because I'll know that you're happy too."

Jackie nodded brokenly. "I'll try, love, but I'll never forget you. My amazing baby girl. I'm so proud of you. And you tell himself that I'm expecting him to take care of you. No more leaving you on alien spaceships while he goes swanning off."

And with that the tears began to fall in earnest. "I love you, mum. I always will. You're the best mum I could have ever asked for." She wrapped her arms around her mum for the last time, trying to memorise the feel of her, her scent, the sound of her voice.

"I love you, sweetheart," Jackie cried into her shoulder and Rose's heart clenched and she held her tighter.

But she had to go, or the Doctor would convince Mickey to open the breach without her and she would be trapped on this side, never able to see him again. And even though it hurt to say goodbye to her mum, she knew that was nothing next to the pain of being separated from him forever.

And so she disentangled herself from her mother's arms and stepped back, fingers reaching for the hopper and drinking in this final image of her mother, safe in the arms of the only man she had ever really loved. Her mother and father, together again. The family she was leaving for good.

She pressed the button.

Rose reappeared in the lever room back in her home universe. The Doctor was darting around from terminal to terminal, a frantic expression marring his handsome face.

"We've got Cybermen, one floor below us," Mickey reported from the office. "And it looks like the Daleks are closing in too."

"Levers operational," the computer announced.

The Doctor glanced up at her then and she was relieved to see the tension melt away when he saw that she was back. Maybe he wanted her to stay after all. She was aware that she looked a mess. Her make up would be smeared from crying and her hair was probably a fright from all the running around. She forced her sadness away, wanting to appear as normal as possible for the Doctor's sake, before he made any further suggestions that she go back to Pete's world for good.

"That's more like it. Bit of a smile. The old team."

The Doctor actually did smile at that. "Hope and Glory, Mutt and Jeff, Shiver and Shake." He paused, remembering. "And Mickey."

The Doctor picked up one of the magnaclamps and dumped it into Mickey's arms. "Press the red button," he told him.

"How's this gonna work anyway?" Mickey asked sceptically. "You only picked up two of these things."

"Rose and I will share," the Doctor shrugged. "One of these can easily hold the weight of two people. Now, when it starts, just hold on tight. Shouldn't be too bad for us but the Daleks and the Cybermen are steeped in Void stuff. Are you ready?" He nodded to Rose to take hold the magnaclamp as he attached it to the wall, then he and Mickey moved around to stand at the levers. Rose looped both arms through the handle securely, watching them closely.

"We'd better be," Mickey said, nodding to the windows. "We're out of time."

The Doctor set his face into an expression of grim determination. "Let's do it!"

Mickey and the Doctor both took hold of a lever, forcing it into an upright position and then darting around to grab onto their magnaclamp. Rose felt a little thrill as the Doctor pressed up behind her, wrapping his arms around her before grasping the clamp firmly.

She didn't have time to enjoy it though, as at that moment the computer announced that the system was online and she felt a wind begin to buffet her from all sides, pulling inexorably towards the breach wall, now lit up brightly as it was opened to full capacity. Glass shattered as the first Daleks were caught in the wind and pulled into hell.

Her feet lifted away from the floor as the pull began to work on her too. She tried to use the base of the lever to brace herself, but it was difficult with the Doctor's body behind her. Their legs knocked together a few times and the Doctor yelped in her ear when her trainer caught him in the shin.

Dimly she heard a Dalek's voice shrieking as it whizzed past them. Risking a glance over her shoulder she saw the Doctor's face light up with hope and beyond him a blur of Dalek and Cybermen bodies being dragged into the void.

"The breach is open! Into the Void! Ha!" The Doctor's exuberance was catching and she tried to smile back at him, but the wind caught in her throat, nearly making her choke.

It was going to work! Two armies, Dalek and Cybermen, defeated by the Doctor, with some help from Rose and Mickey. All they had to do now was hold on and then she and the Doctor would be back in the Tardis and this whole mess would be left far behind. She wasn't really sure where Mickey would fit into that plan, or what he was still doing on this side. Last time they had spoken he was adamant on staying in the parallel world and she had thought she would never see him again. Now apparently he was staying. She felt a flash of guilt that her mother would also be left behind, but squashed it ruthlessly. She needed to be strong right now. There was no good to be had from the Doctor thinking she regretted her choice.

Over the banging and crashing of their enemies flying past and the rushing of the wind in her ears, Rose heard the computer announce, "Offline."

Immediately the suction around them decreased and the flow of Cybermen slowed. It took Rose a long moment to realise what had happened, but by then the Doctor was already leaning away from her, releasing the clamp with one arm as he reached towards the lever that was slowly, inexorably, making its way into the offline position.

Rose watched, her heart in her mouth, as the Doctor's fingers just barely brushed the lever. It was already too far away. Soon the pull of the void would cease altogether and they would be in a room surrounded by Daleks and Cybermen who would kill them all without thought, before moving on to kill and upgrade the population of her whole world.

"Rose!" the Doctor yelled by her ear. "Do you trust me?"

She nodded mutely, not feeling up to giving him the scathing retort he deserved for asking such a stupid question. His free arm came up to wrap around her waist and she got a glimmer of what it was he was going to ask her to do.

"Let go," he told her. "I've got you. I won't let go, I promise. You need to get the lever."

Rose closed her eyes for a second, imagining all the ways this could possibly go wrong. Then, with a deep breath, she let go.

The wind was much weaker now, but still had enough force to turn her round in the Doctor's grip, so she was facing the lever and he was clinging to her with one arm, while the other was wrapped around the magnaclamp, stretched back as far as it could go. She wanted to grab onto him with both hands and never let go, but the suction was dropping by the second. A Dalek drifted past her, its laser arm swinging around wildly. In a second it would get control of itself and that weapon would be aiming directly for its number one enemy: the Doctor.

Her hands wrapped around the lever and she pulled.

"Online and locked," the computer announced.

The suction picked up again and the Dalek disappeared into the void. Unfortunately that meant that Rose was being pulled harder too and even the Doctor's greater than human strength wouldn't be able to hold her for long.

She twisted in his grip as best she could, desperately trying to hold onto him. She managed to get her left arm around his waist and flung out her right trying to reach the magnaclamp. She missed by inches, instead finding his shoulder and grasping it tightly.

The Doctor was forced to let go of her now that she had a good grip on him so that he could hold the magnaclamp with both hands. She could hear him yelling over the wind, but could barely make out the words, some rendition of her name and the words 'hold on' repeated over and over. She buried her face in his chest and tried to imagine this was just a normal hug, that her life didn't depend on holding on for as long as possible.

Rose was just beginning to wonder if the onslaught would ever end, if they would be here for hours yet, when she realised that the drag was lessening again. She risked a glance towards the breach, which no longer glowed brightly at the other end of the room. Her arms were aching from the strain of holding on for so long, her fingers cramped and throbbing where they were clenched in the Doctor's suit, but she tightened her grip, not wanting to let go now the end was so close.

Her feet hit the ground suddenly, but she wasn't prepared and they buckled beneath her, unable to take her weight. She hung from the Doctors waist for a second before she forced herself to release him, falling the rest of the way to the ground in an undignified heap.

"Rose." The Doctor was kneeling over her, trying to help her into a sitting position. "We made it, Rose. They're gone."

And they were. The Daleks from the prison ship were no longer visible through the windows lining the walls and the sounds of lasers firing and humans screaming were no longer echoing up to them from the lower floors.

"We did it," she whispered, looking up into his smiling face. She flung herself up and into his arms, which were already open and waiting for her and this was a much more comfortable embrace, where she could bury her nose into the side of his neck and breathe him in without fear of being torn away from him forever.

"You OK?" he asked her, not letting go.

She took a quick stock of herself. All in one piece, at least on the outside. She had left one very important piece of her heart on the other side of the void, but she wasn't about to explore that train of thought now, with the Doctor holding her, just waiting for a sign of resentment because she had chosen him over her own mother. There would be time to grieve later, in the privacy of her room on the Tardis where she could cry without him seeing.

"Yeah," she murmured, pulling back so she could get a good look at him. "Bit shaky, but I'm fine. You?"

"Yeah." He released her to stand up, reaching down to pull her with him.

"I'm fine, too," Mickey said, a little resentfully. "I'm sure one of you was just about to ask."

"Oh, any second," the Doctor snarked. "It was on the tip of my tongue."

Rose laughed breathlessly despite herself and forced herself to take a step back out of the Doctor's arms. Her legs held and she felt herself begin to relax. Breathing easier by the second she reached out to Mickey, hugging him tightly in relief that he was still here with her. She hadn't lost everything of her old life.

"You stayed." A thought struck her and she pulled back, looking into Mickey's eyes for any indication that she was right, but his expression gave nothing away. It seemed Mickey's time in the parallel world had taught him not to wear his emotions on his sleeve. While she would be proud of the changes in him any other time, right now it only caused a twinge of frustration that she couldn't tell what he was thinking.

"Nothing else we can do here," the Doctor said, kicking absently at the lever that had nearly cost them everything. "Back to the Tardis. Mickey, you coming?"

"I could do with a lift, yeah," Mickey said agreeably. So he wasn't planning on travelling again then. Rose wasn't positive how she felt about that. "Not sure where to, yet. Did the landlord let my flat to anyone else?"

"Dunno," Rose said honestly, following the Doctor towards the lift. "We emptied it after you decided to stay behind. All your stuff is on the Tardis. I couldn't bear to chuck it all out and we're not exactly lacking for space."

They would have to empty out her mum's flat, too. Not today, though. She couldn't bear it yet. Fortunately she had a time machine at her disposal. The Doctor could take her back when she felt ready for it. She shuddered slightly as she stepped into the lift. Would she ever be ready?

The Doctor's hand twined with her own, their fingers twisting together in a way that had become so dear to her over the past two years and she knew with absolute certainty, that she had made the right decision. She would always miss her mother, but losing the Doctor would have killed her.

They rode the lift in silence, each of them lost in their own thoughts. Rose was bolstered by the Doctor's hand in hers. Once again they had nearly been parted forever and once again they had fought to stay together. She frowned at that thought. She had fought to stay with the Doctor, but he had tried to send her away. Was that what he wanted? For her to leave him?

The lift opened onto the vault and they walked out, Rose pointing the way to where Torchwood had taken the Tardis. The Doctor let go of her when they reached it, unlocking the door and disappearing inside. Mickey went to follow, but Rose caught his wrist. She had to know or the guilt would tear her apart.

"What is it, babe?" he asked her worriedly and her heart caught in worry at the endearment.

Rose eased the Tardis door closed. The Doctor didn't need to hear this conversation.

"You stayed," she began. "I thought you were happy in the parallel world. Pete's world, or whatever we're calling it now."

Mickey smiled at her. "It's like you said, when we were down with the sphere before all hell broke loose. I'd follow you anywhere."

"Oh." That was what she had been afraid of.

He nudged her and Rose looked up at him. "What is it?"

"It's just… Me and you, we, well…"

Mickey snorted and Rose frowned at him in consternation.

"Sorry," he said not sounding at all sorry. "Wasn't aware there _was_ a me and you. Thought that was over long ago."

Rose's frown deepened. "So you _didn't_ stay because of me, then?"

"Bit full of yourself aren't ya?"

She hit him in the arm. "I'm serious," she snapped. "I want you to stay, course I do, but not if you only did it because you thought… And I didn't mean to lead you on, 'cause that's not gonna happen."

He grinned down at her. "I know. It's you and him. Always will be. No room for a tin dog as a third wheel."

She nodded slowly. He wasn't looking to get back together then. "I was just worried, because we were flirting a bit earlier and, well, we never did officially break up."

"Maybe not," Mickey said and not unkindly. "But I took it as a fairly good sign when you ran off with another bloke and never showed any interest in me every time I saw you after. But if it makes you feel better, we are officially broken up. You're free to shag the Doctor if that's what you wanna do. And I'm free to do what I want. And I want to stay here."

Rose giggled. "Here?"

"Well, not right here," Mickey agreed with a glance around at the vault, full of misappropriated alien technology. "You know what I mean."

"Mmm. And just so we're clear, I'm not shagging the Doctor. We're not like that. I don't think we'll _ever_ be like that." She tried not to let her disappointment colour her voice. "So what did change your mind?"

Mickey looked away then, not meeting her eyes. "My gran died there, too. Got to spend her last days in a mansion, but she was old. Her heart gave out."

Rose laid her hand on his elbow. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah," Mickey said flatly. Then he shook himself. "Besides, the Cybermen up and left and that world's hardly ever invaded by aliens. I think I can be more use here."

Rose cocked her head to one side. "Well, if you're serious about that, the Doctor might be able to help. You remember those alien experts he told us about? When Downing Street was under attack from the Slitheen? I think he used to work with some of them. He might be able to get you a job."

Mickey's face lit up. "Ya think? Would be better than going back to the garage."

Rose shrugged. "Let's go ask."

She pushed the Tardis door open, stepping into the console room. The Doctor looked up from the monitor when they entered. He had a strange expression on his face, somewhere between guilt and concern and Rose knew he had been watching them on the scanner. Nosy git.

"Doctor? I was just telling Mickey about those alien expert friends of yours. See, he's looking for a job. Reckon he knows a thing or two about aliens. What do you think?"

"You mean UNIT?" the Doctor said thoughtfully. "Yeah, reckon they might be able to help you out."

"Yeah?" Mickey said hopefully.

"Sure," the Doctor nodded. "Why don't you and Rose go find the storage room where we're keeping your things? I'll put in a call to the Brigadier."

Rose smiled gratefully at him. "Yeah, I could do with a shower actually." And a good cry, but she wasn't about to admit that.

The Doctor caught her arm as she went to move past him. "You alright?" he asked her. "Really?"

The question only caused her breath to catch. She wasn't ready to talk about this. Not yet. Maybe not for a long while. If she cried now the Doctor would blame himself for letting her stay and he would end up walking on egg shells around her for the next six months. "I will be," she said thickly, glad her voice stayed somewhat even.

Mickey slipped past her down a corridor and she turned to face the Doctor properly. "I'll miss her, but it's like I told you before. 'Everyone leaves home in the end.'"

"Not to end up flying about in time and space with their alien best friend though," the Doctor pointed out cheekily.

Rose shrugged, a smile just beginning to creep onto her face. "Their loss."

He pulled her into a hug then, his arms wrapping around her as hers wound around his waist. She would take this, if that was all he could offer her. It was enough, just to be his friend. Her mother was gone, but he was still here and they were going to be alright.

They stood there, next to the console, swaying slightly, for several very long moments until Rose had to bite the inside of her cheek hard to keep back the tears. _Don't cry,_ she thought desperately.

"I'd better show Mickey to the storage room," she said pulling away. "And I wasn't joking about the shower. See you in a bit, yeah?"

"Yeah," he agreed. "Off you go then."

She turned back when she got to the corridor, but he was already absorbed with something on the console. "It was the right choice," she told his back. "I won't regret it. I _want_ to be here."

He tensed at her words, but he didn't turn around. "I hope that's true, because it's not something we can go back and change. The walls are closed for good."

"It's true," she insisted. She remembered the words that Mickey had given her outside and offered them to the Doctor now, only this time they were uttered without a trace of humour. "I'd follow you anywhere." And then, because she was certain she would break her promise to herself not to cry in front of him if she stayed, she headed down the corridor in search of Mickey.

The Doctor wandered around the console as Rose's footsteps disappeared into the depths of the Tardis. He input the sequence to send them into the vortex on auto pilot, his thoughts still on that last exchange with Rose.

She was so certain that this was where she wanted to be, but how long would that last? Until it really sank in that she would never see her mother again? Or would she continue to believe it for years to come, until something happened, some as yet unforeseen event that would make her see that this wasn't what she wanted, that choosing him over Jackie Tyler was the biggest mistake of her life?

Either way, she was here now and was planning to stay, at least for the time being. And he would greedily take every moment that she offered him until the day came that she couldn't stand to look at him any longer. The day she finally left him and he would be alone again.

Because it was too much to hope that she really would follow him anywhere.

He dropped the Tardis back into normal space, letting her orbit the planet Earth lazily while he tried to think of something to do with himself. Rose would probably want to sleep for a bit after the day they had and Mickey would pack up his stuff so he could go back to a normal human life. He could make that phone call to UNIT, but didn't want to seem too keen to help Mickey out. He could try to find something to repair on the Tardis, but she had taken to shocking him when he spent too long messing about in her internal systems without good reason.

He was actually glad Mickey had decided to stay, especially after the conversation he had just listened in on. Not only was Mickey happy to act like his eyes and ears on Earth, but the young man had matured from the cowardly little whelp he had been into a strong confident young man, one he was proud to call a friend. Not that he would ever admit that out loud.

Nor was he going to admit how pleased he was to hear that the two of them were no longer an item. That they hadn't been, not really, in all the time she had been on the Tardis. Because the Doctor didn't do jealousy. He was especially not jealous of Mickey Smith. And now he knew he didn't have any reason to be. He didn't want to dwell on Rose's assertion that they would never be more than friends and how much that bothered him.

Most of all he was selfishly glad that Rose would be here for a while longer. That moment when he thought he would never see her again, after he had sent her to the parallel universe, had nearly been the end of him. Since the time war she had become his best friend, but more importantly the light she brought with her onto the Tardis had made him feel again. He had come to need her desperately and didn't want to think what sort of man he would become without her to hold his hand.

A movement on the other side of the time rotor caught his attention and he moved towards it, thinking Rose or Mickey had come looking for him.

But it wasn't Rose. Or Mickey. Instead a red headed woman stood staring at the inside of his front door. And she was wearing a veil of all things. Why would anyone want to cover up such beautiful ginger hair? No, there was a more pressing question; how had she gotten on board in the first place?

"What?" the Doctor stuttered, not understanding this at all.

She spun around, a surprised noise squeaking out of her. Well that didn't help anything.

"What?" the Doctor said again, hoping for a better answer this time, maybe an explanation for how this human looking woman had come to be here.

"Who are you?" she said instead.

"But…" the Doctor tried, not really sure what he was even trying to ask anymore.

"Where am I?" She was getting over her shock now and beginning to get angry. That wouldn't do, she had appeared on _his_ ship. If anyone should be getting angry it was him.

"What?" he tried one more time, hoping to get the upper hand.

She wasn't in the mood to answer him. "What the hell is this place?" she yelled in frustration.

"What?"


	2. The Runaway Bride Part 1

Hi! So I've split this one into three as it was so long. I'm not too sure about where I've ended it, but it made the three parts about even, so I went with it.

I hope you enjoy it"

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who!

"What?"

It was a good thing Rose wasn't in the console room at that moment. She would be laughing at his inability to string a sentence together.

"You can't do that. I wasn't," he looked down at the console, where the co-ordinates were set to Earth orbit, then up at the time rotor that was moving up and down as it always did while the Tardis was in motion. "We're in flight. That is, that is physically impossible! How did…"

"Tell me where I am," the strange – possibly human – woman interrupted, beginning to get angry now. "I demand you tell me right now, where am I?"

"Inside the Tardis," the Doctor retorted, his mind whirling through the possibilities.

Apparently that wasn't enough. "The what?"

"The Tardis," the Doctor repeated, wondering if she had a hearing problem.

"The what?"

Yep, definitely not hearing at her fall capacity. "The Tardis!" he was yelling now.

"The _what_?"

Or maybe she was just not understanding. "It's called the Tardis," he tried in a more reasonable tone.

The woman huffed in exasperation and maybe a little bit of fear. Rose did that, sometimes, when she was scared she would bluster about and pretend to be angry just so the other party didn't realise just how scared she was.

"That's not even a proper word. You're just saying things." Rose was never quite that loud though.

Loud enough to draw attention, as Mickey ran into the console room in alarm, catching himself on one of the coral struts.

"What's going on? I heard someone yelling. Is Rose alright?" he caught sight of the woman. "Who's that?"

She was looking between the two of them, alarm building by the second. "There's two of you," she said, unnecessarily gesturing between them. "Is this some sort of kidnapping ring? It is, isn't it? You go around, just abducting women and dragging them back to your grungy dungeon and then what, eh?"

"Oi!" Grungy dungeon was a bit uncalled for. The Tardis was the most gorgeous ship in the universe.

"Are you getting married?" Mickey asked, looking her up and down.

That would explain the white dress. The Doctor turned back to the console, hoping Mickey could distract her for a few moments while he tried to work out how she had transported herself on board.

The woman rolled her eyes. "No. I'm going ten pin bowling. What do ya think, _dumbo_! I was halfway up the aisle! I've been waiting all my life for this. I was just seconds away, and then you, I don't know, you drugged me or something!"

"I haven't done anything," the Doctor insisted, stretching to reach two dials at the same time. So much for Mickey.

She paused as something else occurred to her. "You said Rose. Is there another woman here? I'm not the first am I?" She lifted the front of her skirts and started towards Mickey who skittered out of her way in alarm.

"I'm not having it," the strange woman was muttering angrily, storming into the maze of corridors beyond the console room. "I'm going to find her and then we're _both_ getting out of here. And we'll have the police on you! Me and my husband, as soon as he is my husband, we're going to sue the living _backside_ off ya! Rose!" she yelled making her way down the corridor.

The Doctor, who had been distracted by the large amount of nothing the Tardis was telling him, suddenly realised what she was doing. "No, hang on. I haven't kidnapped _anyone_. And Rose is my friend." He darted after her, Mickey trailing along in his wake.

The woman – and it wasn't fair that she got to have red hair when she was being so loud and rude –was making her way down the corridor, pushing open doors and yelling for Rose, making promises about how they were going to escape. The Doctor attempted to move around in front of her, but every time he tried to halt her progress she would start flapping her hands at him like she was trying to fight him off in the most ineffectual way possible. It was still a terrifying display of angry human female.

"Look," he said exasperatedly as the woman continued to ignore him. "Rose is here of her own free will. I don't know what you're doing here, I don't even understand how you _got_ here and I understand everything. No one has been kidnapped and no one needs rescuing. Can you just calm down and I'll get you home?"

"Calm down!" the woman screeched, reaching the sort of pitch that usually made dogs howl. "I'm supposed to be getting married!"

"What's happening?" another voice, the most welcome voice in the universe at that moment, carried down the corridor. The Doctor glanced up to see Rose, dripping wet with a big fluffy towel wrapped around the most important bits. Her eyes were red, like she had got soap in her eyes and her wet hair wrapped up in a turban, with strands hanging out, clinging to her neck. The Doctor was struck speechless.

"Oh my god," the woman whispered, finally finding a volume other than loud. "Do they not let you have clothes? Do they make you parade around naked? This is sick."

"I let her have clothes," the Doctor mumbled, watching a droplet of water make its way down the entire length of Rose's arm.

"What?" Rose gasped. "I don't understand, what's going on? And hang on," she rounded on the Doctor. "You _let me have clothes_?"

"Never mind that now!" the woman snapped, snagging Rose's wrist and pulling her back towards the console room. "Come on, Rose. We'll get them, don't you worry."

Rose followed her a few steps, wrestling to hold up her towel and free her wrist at the same time. "I'm more worried about the strange woman dragging me about in my home, to be honest."

The Doctor's hearts stuttered a bit at hearing her call the Tardis home. While he wanted nothing more than for her to feel like this really _was_ her home, here with him, the fact was that she had nowhere else now. The only home she had known in her life, other than the Tardis, was no longer an option.

The woman stopped. "Your home? So you're in on it, then! And if you haven't been kidnapped then why have you been crying?"

The Doctor examined Rose's face more clearly, kicking himself for not realising sooner. The redness _could_ be due to crying and really that was the more likely scenario given she had said goodbye to her mother only half an hour previous. His stomach churned with the knowledge that he was the cause of that agony, that he would never be able to alleviate her pain.

"Kidnapped?" Rose ignored the last question, which the Doctor took as confirmation. "Look, what's your name?" she demanded, finally freeing her wrist from the woman's grip.

"Donna."

"Right, Donna. It's nice to meet you," Rose said, deceptively calm. "I'm Rose and this is the Doctor and Mickey."

"She just appeared, Rose," the Doctor told her, finding his voice at last. "And that can't happen! There is no way a human being can lock itself onto the Tardis and transport itself inside." He looked Donna up and down appraisingly. "I assume you _are_ human."

"Yes, I'm human. Wait, what do you mean 'Human being.' As in you lot are aliens?" Donna said fearfully, eyes wide and frantic.

The Doctor looked to Rose pleadingly. Given his experience with Donna so far she was likely about to accuse them of some sort of alien probing.

"I'm human," Rose assured her comfortingly, laying one hand on the woman's elbow. "So's Mickey. The Doctor, he's an alien, but I promise he won't hurt you and he's certainly not the type to go around kidnapping people." Mickey snorted, but she ignored him. "I don't suppose there's any chance we can have this conversation when I'm not wearing a towel is there? No?"

"If it's the towel bothering you, you could always drop it," Mickey said with a leer.

The Doctor glared at him. "Haven't you got something better to do?"

"Nah, I'm loving this," Mickey chortled. The Doctor wanted to throttle him.

"He kept going on about some Tar-dress," Donna cut in, looking only at Rose like she was her lifeline in the strange reality she had just found herself in. "Is that some sort of alien fashion? A dress made out of tar? Oh, that's why you're only in a towel!"

The Doctor blinked at her, wondering how she had managed to come up with that one. And how would that work anyway? He turned his gaze to Rose, trying to picture her wearing nothing but tar. The image that sprang to mind made his cheeks heat up. Fortunately none of the humans were paying all that much attention to him.

"Do you mean 'Tardis'?" Rose asked her. "That's the name of the spaceship we're in. The Doctor's spaceship." At her blank look Rose tried one more time. "We're in space."

Donna made a strange squeaky noise of surprise at that. "I was walking down the aisle," she said softly. "How did I get here?"

Finally back on more comfortable ground the Doctor cleared his throat. "That's what I'm trying to figure out. Because it's impossible. Some sort of subatomic connection? Something in the temporal field? Maybe something pulling you into alignment with the Chronon shell. Maybe…" he trailed off, finally noticing Rose shaking her head at him. "Later?"

"Yeah," she smirked at him. "I think Donna's more concerned with not missing her wedding right now."

Donna gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. "Get me to the church!"

Now that she was calm the Doctor felt much more able to deal with this. He gestured for her to follow him back down the corridor towards the console room. "Where's this wedding?"

"Saint Mary's, Hayden Road, Chiswick," Donna told him. Then after a brief pause, "London, England, Earth, the Solar System."

The Doctor sighed. "Right, Chiswick."

Once she had been left alone, Rose had gone back to her room to dry off and get dressed. A headache had bloomed while she was in the shower, as sometimes happened when she had a good cry. She would have liked a bit longer to allow the evidence of her tears to fade naturally, but hastily applied make up would have to do the job. Her eyes still looked a little bloodshot, but there was nothing she could do about that. The Doctor had seen anyway. She hadn't missed the flash of guilt across his face when Donna had pointed it out.

She had hurried to the console room, stopping only long enough to grab a paracetamol and a glass of water from the kitchen, but it was empty. Huffing that they had left without her, Rose headed for the doors. With any luck they wouldn't have gotten far.

Before she could make it down the ramp the door burst open and the Doctor barrelled in, nearly sending her flying before she caught herself on the railing. "Sorry," he called, already hopping about the console and flicking switches. "Mickey, close the door."

"Donna all sorted then?" Rose wondered aloud, clinging onto the nearest hand rail, while Mickey pressed himself against the door in an effort to stay upright.

"Not really," the Doctor said distractedly. "Not unless by 'sorted' you mean she's been kidnapped by robot Santa's who want her for who knows what."

"Do you remember them, Rose?" Mickey asked excitedly. "Do you remember last Christmas when he was in that coma and we were chased by those Santa's? It's the same ones."

"She's havin' a day of it then," Rose said breathlessly. She hauled herself back up the ramp and launched herself over to the console. "Wait, is it Christmas again?" She wasn't entirely sure she felt up to Christmas.

"We're going after her," the Doctor said redundantly. Sparks flew from the console and Rose flinched away in alarm. "Behave," he told the Tardis, grabbing the ever present hammer and smacking it down on the console.

"Percussive maintenance," Mickey said approvingly. "I used to have a motorbike that worked on."

The Doctor looked up, absolutely appalled. "Are you comparing my magnificent time and space ship to your run down old motorbike?"

Rose rolled her eyes at the pair of them. "It might work for motorbikes, but perhaps it's not the best idea to hit your magnificent and _sentient_ time and space ship with a hammer, yeah?"

"Nah, she doesn't mind," the Doctor insisted. "Nearly there," he said approvingly, looking at the scanner. "You can do it old girl."

Rose braced herself on the console and leaned around to look at the screen over his shoulder. It was showing an image of what was going on outside, not the normal circular symbols that made up his native language. She could see cars zipping by on what looked like a busy motorway. "Are we flying? Properly, I mean, not just disappearing here and reappearing there?"

"Yep," the Doctor agreed. "Right, I'm going to need you to hold this lever down," he told her seriously. "If I tell you to, and only when I tell you to, pull it this way to go faster. Once Donna's on board, press this button. I've already programmed her to pull up when you do that. I should be able to take over then."

Rose eyed the button. "Got it." She edged towards him as the Doctor made room for her and took control of the lever.

The Doctor let go, hopping down the ramp, as sure footed in the bucking Tardis as a mountain goat. He stopped before he opened the door, turning back to her with a look of confusion. "You got dressed."

Rose stared at him in disbelief. "I sensed running in the near future. Dunno about you, but I didn't think a towel was appropriate running wear."

The Doctor sniffed as if he hadn't thought about it. "Do my preferences come into consideration?" He wrenched open the Tardis door, dropping down to yell at the nearest car, a taxi. "Open the door!"

"Shut up," Rose muttered to Mickey who was smirking insufferably.

"Open the door!" the Doctor shouted again. Rose couldn't hear the reply, but saw the Doctor withdraw the sonic screwdriver and point it at the car.

She couldn't see Donna from this angle, but she must have opened the window as Rose could hear her voice now. "Santa's a robot."

The Doctor remained unimpressed. "Donna, open the door."

"What for?"

"You've got to jump!" the Doctor told her urgently.

Donna sounded outraged when she spoke next. "I'm not blinking flip jumping. I'm supposed to be getting married!"

The Doctor made a frustrated noise and half turned to her. "Rose, now. The lever."

Rose didn't hesitate, moving the lever in the way she had been shown. The Tardis' shaking grew more pronounced and after a series of bangs from beneath the console gave off a shower of sparks, forcing Mickey to duck out of the way.

The Doctor was hanging on to the door frame with both hands, having nearly been thrown out by the sudden acceleration. "Listen to me. You've got to jump."

"Mickey, go help him," Rose begged. If the Doctor fell out of the Tardis at this speed he would regenerate at the very least and that was only if the impact didn't kill him immediately.

"Whatever that thing is, it needs you. And whatever it needs you for, it's not good! Now, come on!" the Doctor insisted.

Mickey began making his way down the ramp, having to stop every other step to catch himself on the railings.

"I'm in my wedding dress!"

"Yes, you look lovely! Come on!" The Doctor's voice was doing that high pitched thing he sometimes did when he was particularly anxious. Or embarrassed, but Rose doubted that was the case here.

"I can't do it," Donna pleaded, sounding close to tears.

"Trust me," the Doctor said, quieter now, desperate.

There was a pause and Rose prayed silently that Donna would make it, even as her hand hovered over the button the Doctor told her would get them out of here. She was ready to press it the second Donna was on board.

"Would you ask her to do it? Rose? Would you ask her to jump on a motorway?"

"Course he would," Rose yelled. "And I'd do it in a heartbeat. Come _on_ , Donna."

"Can I have the other one?"

Rose frowned, not knowing what the redhead was talking about, until she realised that Mickey had made his way to the Doctor's side. Personally she would rather have the Doctor catch her, but Donna had no idea that despite his wiry frame the Doctor was much stronger than the more sturdily built Mickey.

For once the Doctor didn't argue, or try to change her mind. He simply shifted backwards allowing Mickey to take his place in the doorway. Rose tried to see what was happening, but with two bodies now blocking her view there was no chance.

Mickey abruptly fell backwards, his arms full of Donna and her dress, causing the Doctor to hop up the ramp to get out of the way. "Now, Rose," he shouted and she slammed her hand down on the button.

The sudden shift in direction made her fall on her bum, but by then the Doctor was there, pressing switches and throwing levers. Rose gingerly clambered to her feet, barely noticing Mickey and Donna come up beside her as smoke began to billow from beneath the console.

"Doctor," she said trying not to panic.

"I know, I know," he told her frantically, reaching under the jump seat and pulling out a fire extinguisher, thrusting it into her hands so he could concentrate on piloting the ship.

Rose pointed the nozzle at the source of the smoke, glad it was a normal twenty first century Earth extinguisher rather than some alien gizmo she would never be able to figure out. She squeezed the handle, watching as the nozzle shot out some kind of green alien gloop. Not quite a normal extinguisher then.

Mickey grabbed her elbow when the Doctor started yelling at them to get out, pulling her towards the door. She dropped the fire extinguisher on her way out, grateful to be away from the smoke.

Donna was checking her watch, seeming completely disconnected from the havoc taking place inside the Tardis, while Rose was waving her hand in front of her face to fend off the smell of the smoke that was following them out of the ship. Mickey coughed, somewhat theatrically in Rose's opinion, while the Doctor used a more normal fire extinguisher, aiming indiscriminately into the open Tardis door while he stood safely outside.

Finally giving up he dropped the fire extinguisher inside and pulled the door closed. "The funny thing is, for a spaceship, she doesn't really do that much flying. We'd better give her a couple of hours. You all right? Rose, Donna?"

"Fine, yeah," Rose nodded following him over to where Donna now stood, staring out over the rooftops of London.

"Doesn't matter," Donna sighed, shrugging one shoulder.

Mickey coughed one final time in an attempt to get the Doctor's attention. The Doctor pretended not to notice.

"Did we miss it?" he asked Donna instead.

"Yeah." Donna said, drawing out the word. She sounded so defeated and Rose's heart went out to her. She had never been one of those girls who fantasised about their wedding day since childhood, but she could still understand the devastation that Donna was going through, of all those hopes and dreams coming crashing down around you. She wrapped one arm around Donna in a half hug.

"It's not a complete loss," she tried. "Have you got a reception planned? You can still dance with your bloke, have a good time. And then you get to go on holiday together and forget all about… _this_."

"Yeah, but it should have been my honeymoon," Donna said sadly.

"It'll be just as fun," Rose promised her. "And you're only postponing it. Think of it as practise for the real thing."

"Why do you need practise for a honeymoon?" the Doctor asked.

Rose and Donna gave the Doctor identical looks of condescension before they burst into giggles at his bewildered expression. "You don't wanna go there, mate," Mickey told him. "You don't want to start talking to girls about weddings and honeymoons."

Donna's face fell again and her shoulders drooped. "Wish you had a time machine, then we could go back and get it right." She was watching the Doctor closely as she said it, like she was half hoping he did have one.

"Yeah," the Doctor said, clearly grateful for the change of topic. "Yeah. But… even if I did, I couldn't go back on someone's personal timeline. Apparently."

Donna moved forward to sit on the edge of the building and Rose nudged the Doctor playfully. "I reckon just keepin' your mouth shut would've been more subtle."

He grinned at her, removing his suit jacket to lay it around Donna's shoulders. He dropped down beside Donna.

"God, you're skinny. This wouldn't fit a rat," she complained.

"Would you rather have mine?" Mickey asked with a smirk.

Rose smacked him in the arm before going to sit on Donna's other side. Mickey and the Doctor were always having a go at each other and now that Donna had made it quite clear what she thought of the Doctor's physique Mickey was obviously planning on harping on about the fact that she liked him better for the next year or so.

Speaking of the Doctor's physique, without his suit jacket she was able to see a little more of it than she was used to. He was always so dressed up in his layers that she couldn't see the lean muscles that she suspected hid beneath them. She wished he would roll up his shirt sleeves so she could get a peek at his fore arms, a sight she was rarely treated to unless the Tardis repairs were of the more strenuous variety.

She shivered in a way that had nothing to do with the cold December air and looked out over the skyline. She let her eyes drift over the estate that had once been her home, refusing to linger there.

The Doctor patted down his trouser pockets and pulled something out. "Oh and you'd better put this on."

He held a plain gold band between his thumb and index finger, waving it in Donna's direction.

Rose gasped, even as part of her mind wondered exactly what that ring was doing in his pocket. "Doctor, we're trying to cheer her up, not make it worse." She patted Donna's arm consolingly. "Sorry, he really is such an alien sometimes. Doesn't even realise when he puts his foot in it."

"Or he realises and just doesn't care," Mickey put in, sitting next to Rose.

"Oi!" the Doctor pouted. "I'm not trying to upset you Donna, but those creatures can trace you. This is a bio-damper. Should keep you hidden." He took her hand and slid the ring on her finger. "With this ring, I thee bio-damp." Rose bit her lip and looked away. She may not be the marrying kind of girl, but the sight of the Doctor putting a ring on another woman's finger was inexplicably painful.

"For better or for worse." Donna actually smiled at that. "So, come on then. Robot santas, what are they for?"

"Ah, your basic robo-scavenger," the Doctor explained, leaning back on his hands. "The Father Christmas stuff is just a disguise. They're trying to blend in. We met them last Christmas."

"Why, what happened then?"

The three time travellers stared at her. "Great big spaceship… hovering over London? You didn't notice?"

Donna pulled a face at the memory. "I had a bit of a hangover."

"Doctor, you said they were like the little fish swimming after the big fish," Rose reminded him. "But it can't be the Sycorax again, can it? Because Harriet had the ship destroyed and you said they weren't likely to send anyone else after being defeated here. So who's the big fish now?"

"Good question," the Doctor beamed at her. "Dunno yet, but I'm working on it. Among other things. Things such as; what do camouflaged robot mercenaries want with Donna? And how did she get inside the Tardis? I don't know. What's your job, Donna?" He reached into the breast pocket of his jacket, still around Donna's shoulders and pulled out his sonic screwdriver.

"I'm a secretary," Donna said. Her manner was defensive, as if waiting for them to mock her for her job.

"I used to work in a shop until I met the Doctor," Rose confided, hoping to put the other woman at ease. "Mickey here," she nudged him playfully as the Doctor began scanning Donna, "He's a mechanic slash computer expert and soon to be defender of the Earth."

"Once the Doctor makes that call," Mickey added.

"Yeah, I'm getting to it," the Doctor said defensively. "I think this is just a teensy bit more pressing, don't you?" He peered at the read out from the sonic. "It's weird. I mean, you're not special, you're not powerful, you're not connected, you're not clever, you're not important."

"You're itching for a slap, you are," Donna said angrily. She smacked his hand away. "Stop bleeping me."

"Don't think I'm gonna intervene. You deserve a smack for that one," Rose added warningly. "That comment was _way_ past rude."

"Go on, do it," Mickey urged. "I missed it when Jackie slapped him. Always wished I could've seen it."

Rose glared at him. The middle of a crisis was no place for a break down and she had been doing well at not thinking about her mum. She felt her eyes prickling again and forced the whole thing away, turning back to the Doctor, who was still questioning Donna about her job.

"I'm at HC Clements. It's where I met Lance. I was temping," Donna was saying a happy smile spreading across her lips. Lance must be her fiancé then. "I mean, it was all a bit posh really. I'd spent the last two years at a double glazing firm. Well, I thought I'm never going to fit in here. And then he made me a cup of coffee. I mean, that just doesn't happen. Nobody gets the secretaries a coffee."

Donna's eyes had gone distant as she spoke about the man she loved and Rose couldn't stop herself from glancing at the Doctor again. He was studying Donna thoughtfully and Rose allowed herself a small smile at seeing him concentrating so hard. She always found him physically attractive, but the sexiest part of the Doctor had always been his mind. And to think she had nearly lost this forever.

"And Lance, he's the head of HR! He don't need to bother with me. But he was nice, he was funny," Donna continued. "And it turns out he thought everyone else was really snotty too. So that's how it started, me and him. One cup of coffee. That was it."

"That's lovely," Rose said warmly. "Sounds like a great bloke."

"When was this?" the Doctor cut in, clearly not impressed with the story. Rose sighed. He really was just like a human man sometimes. But she remembered a time, not all that long ago really, that he had been so moved by the story of a couple sharing a taxi home at two in the morning that at the time she had wondered if that was what he really wanted his life to be.

"Six months ago," Donna replied promptly.

"Bit quick to get married," the Doctor suggested as if he knew all about human courtship rituals.

"Sometimes you just know," Rose told him pointedly.

"And sometimes you can be together for years and be absolutely wrong about it," Mickey put in snidely. "You can be absolutely sure about someone and then an alien runs off with your girlfriend."

The Doctor frowned at him. "Let it go, Mickey."

"How does that work, then?" Donna asked curiously. She glanced back and forth between Rose and Mickey. "Because I thought you two were together. Are you saying you left the ruggedly handsome one for the skinny one?" she asked Rose incredulously.

Rose gaped at her. "It wasn't like that."

"Come off it, Rose, that's exactly what happened," Mickey said with a snort.

"The Doctor and I are just friends," she insisted, although her voice cracked a bit on the last word, the way it always did. Because even though it was strictly speaking true, sometimes it just felt like a lie.

The Doctor cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable again. He always got twitchy whenever the topic of relationships came up, especially theirs. It was the main reason Rose felt she always needed to explain their actual relationship status. "What does HC Clements do?"

Donna was still watching them all carefully, probably trying to figure out which one of the two men Rose was actually seeing, but she allowed the change of subject. "Oh, security systems. You know, entry codes, ID cards, that sort of thing. If you ask me, it's a posh name for locksmiths."

"Keys," the Doctor said thoughtfully, pulling a face as he stretched out the word.

Donna just shrugged and stood up. "Anyway, enough of my CV. Come on, it's time to face the consequences. Oh, this is going to be so shaming. You can do the explaining, Martian boy."

The Doctor groaned as the rest of them climbed to their feet. "Yeah. I'm not from Mars."

But Donna wasn't listening. "I've been looking forward to the reception. Everyone's going to be heartbroken."

Donna's reception was held in a nice hotel in Chiswick. They had to take a taxi to get there, but the Doctor produced the required cash from somewhere in his bottomless pockets. When Rose asked where it came from, he blushed and muttered something about sonicking a cash point. Mickey was sniggering the whole time and Donna just frowned at them all. Rose could only guess something had happened before Donna was kidnapped by a robot. Whatever it was, none of them were talking.

The dance hall had been decorated for Christmas, with a large tree to one side and tinsel and streamers strewn liberally about the place. Someone had tried to adjust the décor for the wedding reception, with banners over the door reading 'just married,' but with even the speakers blaring out festive music, the overall affect was that of an office Christmas party.

Far from being heartbroken, when they reached the reception hall the party was in full swing. If Rose hadn't known better she would have thought the wedding had gone ahead as planned. She felt a surge of anger at the lack of concern Donna's family were showing. When Rose had disappeared her mother had spent a year looking for her. Donna's family hadn't managed an hour.

Donna was equally incensed. She gaped around her in disbelief, her arms crossed over her chest making her look absolutely furious as the people she loved danced and made merry while she had been in mortal danger.

One by one her family began to notice her standing in the doorway with three strangers, each one stopping to stare at them with varying degrees of guilt written across their faces until the music cut out altogether. Once the room was utterly silent the last few revellers realised there was something up and a crowd began to gather around them, all craning their necks so as not to miss the show.

"You had the reception without me?" Donna's voice was even, much more restrained than Rose thought she could have managed in the same situation, but her face betrayed her utter disgust with the lot of them.

"Donna, what happened to you?" The speaker was an attractive black man wearing a nice tuxedo that surely had to be the groom. His tone practically oozed with guilt, but Rose suspected that had more to do with the leggy blonde standing behind him than the reception itself.

Donna just huffed. "You had the reception without me?" Her voice climbed a couple of octaves this time, no longer concealing just how upset she was.

The Doctor leaned forward in the silence that followed. "Hello. I'm the Doctor," he waved. "This is Rose."

"Not the time," Rose hissed at him.

Donna turned to look at them, still radiating her fury. "They had the reception without me."

The Doctor blinked, only now realising that he had inadvertently made himself part of the scene playing out before them. "Yes, I gathered."

The leggy blonde rolled her eyes. "Well, it was all paid for. Why not?" she asked scathingly.

If possible Donna's ire ratcheted up a few notches. "Thank you, _Nerys_." The way she said the other woman's name sounded like there was some history there.

A tall woman with big hair and a bigger hat walked forward. "Well, what were we supposed to do? I got your silly little message in the end. I'm on Earth? Very funny. What the hell happened? How did you do it? I mean, what's the trick, because I'd love to know."

Apparently everyone had an opinion on that because they all gathered around as close as they could, talking over each other, demanding explanations and some even congratulating Donna on pulling such a great prank. Rose moved back at the cacophony, an instinct learned from growing up on an estate where becoming part of another family's drama usually meant shouting matches in the middle of Tesco and an eventual bust up in the pub. Mickey, too, was wary of the scene before them and was looking around for a quick escape.

Donna burst into tears and the man she had guessed to be Lance rushed to her, taking her in his arms as the rest of the crowd sighed and applauded. Donna sobbed into his shoulder and Rose might have even believed the performance had the redhead not turned in her fiancé's arms to wink at them.

"And you say _I'm_ cheeky," she grinned up at the Doctor as the crowd dispersed.

"You are cheeky," he said, tweaking her nose. "I should probably keep you two away from each other. Don't want her teaching you any more bad habits."

Mickey laughed from behind them. "No worries, boss," he said, continuing to snicker. "Rose has never been able to fake cry. She always ends up giggling and gives herself away."

"Shut up," she told him, shoving him gently in the side. "I could if I really needed to."

The music started up again and the guests were drifting back to the dance floor now that the entertainment was over. Lance led Donna over to the bar to get her a drink. Rose watched them thoughtfully.

"Are we sticking around?" she asked the Doctor.

He nodded. "We can't leave Donna alone until we know what the robot Santas want. Even with the bio-damper she's in danger."

She smiled her gaze drifting over the dancers. "Then I guess it's time for the domestic approach."

It was after about twenty minutes of standing and watching the party, feeling bored out of his mind, that Rose returned to them. Mickey could have sighed with relief when he saw her wending her way through the crowded room. While he got on much better with the Doctor these days they always tended to avoid being alone together. Mickey could only guess at the Doctor's reasons for that, but for his part he just didn't want to give the Time Lord more opportunity to gripe at his lack of intelligence. He could only hope that now he and Rose had made it official that they were over the Doctor would find him more tolerable.

He pursed his lips at that thought. Maybe he should make it crystal clear to the Doctor that there really was nothing between him and Rose anymore. Rose deserved to be happy and she wanted the Doctor. If a quiet word in the Doctor's ear made him finally act on the feelings that were obvious to everyone else it would be worth the sarcasm and biting comments he would get in return.

Rose hopped up onto the bar stool next to the Doctor. "So apparently Donna just disappeared from the church mid-way up the aisle," she told them quietly. "I was talking to Lance's cousin Darren-"

"Is that the bloke you were dancing with?" the Doctor interrupted, not looking at her.

Rose tossed her hair back. "Well I needed to get him to talk somehow, didn't I?"

Mickey couldn't help but roll his eyes at how obvious the two were. Eventually the two of them would roll into bed together and put everyone out of their misery.

"Anyway," Rose continued. "He told me that it was like she exploded in a shower of yellow sparks."

"Yellow sparks?" the Doctor queried, looking away from where Donna and Lance were dancing together for the first time since Rose had darted off to question the family. He had been staring at them rather pointedly for a while now. He would insist, if asked, that he was keeping an eye on Donna, but Mickey knew the real reason was he hadn't wanted to watch Rose flirt with another bloke. "Anything else?"

Rose shook her head. "Everyone I spoke to gave me a similar description. But I did find out that the whole thing was filmed. The cameraman is here somewhere setting up. They've all been watching it. We should take a look."

"Good idea," the Doctor congratulated her.

Rose puffed up proudly. Mickey wondered if she was really as upbeat as she was trying to be after the day she'd had. He was feeling pretty wrung out himself and Jackie wasn't his mother.

"Tell ya what else," she added, leaning in so that no one could overhear. "I think Donna could do much better than Lance. That woman he was dancing with, Nerys, she and Donna hate each other – no exaggeration. And he was here dancing with her while Donna was off being nearly killed by robots."

Mickey frowned at her. "How come she's at the wedding then?"

"Maybe she just wanted to rub Nerys' face in how happy they are together?" Rose suggested with a grin. "Nah, sounds like she's the daughter of a family friend, Donna didn't have much choice in inviting her."

"Can I borrow your phone?" the Doctor asked her suddenly, holding his hand out expectantly.

"Um, yeah," Rose said, digging in her back pocket and pulling it out with a flourish. "Who're you gonna call?"

"No one," the Doctor said absently, thumbing the screen on her phone with one hand while he donned his glasses with the other. Mickey looked over his shoulder curiously. Rose had left her last phone with him in the parallel world. It looked like she had gone several years into the future to get a replacement. This one had a huge screen, which apparently reacted to touch and had only one large button at the bottom. He wondered if he could convince the Doctor to get him one of those.

"If I can just…" the Doctor reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the sonic screwdriver. He ducked down a bit so that Rose and Mickey would hide him from anyone watching and zapped the phone.

"You'd better not break that," Rose said playfully.

The Doctor didn't respond, just staring at the phone with an expression of mounting horror. He turned the phone to Rose and showed her whatever it was he had found.

Rose gasped, her hand flying to her mouth.

"What?" Mickey asked annoyed once again at how these two seemed to work best as a pair while they forgot he even existed.

"Donna works for Torchwood," Rose told him fearfully. "How is that possible though? There was no one left."

"They may have bought out HC Clements years ago," the Doctor said thoughtfully. "They were only destroyed about six months ago, local time. This could have already been in the works and now, even with the main organisation gone, it's all just rolling along. Or maybe someone else has taken over, but they're letting Torchwood take the blame. I need to see that video." He reached down and took Rose's hand, storming across the dance floor in search of the cameraman. Mickey hurried to keep up.

The guests seemed to melt out of the Doctor's path, but Mickey wasn't as lucky. By the time he caught up with them they had found the cameraman who was loading his camera with the tape of the aborted ceremony. "They said sell it to You've Been Framed. I said, more like the News. Here we are."

The Doctor stared intently into the display, Rose on tiptoe next to him so she could watch too. Mickey moved around behind them, but couldn't see anything. There was a tinny scream coming from the camera. It sounded like Donna.

"Can't be. Play it again," the Doctor demanded.

"Clever, mind," the cameraman said wryly as he rewound the tape. Rose moved aside so that Mickey could squeeze in next to her. "Good trick, I'll give her that. I was clapping."

The video played again. Donna was walking, arm in arm with her father, when she began to glow a bright gold. She stopped, jaw hanging open as she screamed, breaking into a million golden lights that drifted into the sky. Watching it, Mickey couldn't understand how Donna's family could think the incident anything other than extra-terrestrial.

The Doctor wasn't nearly as impressed. "But that looks like Huon Particles."

"You've mentioned those before," Rose frowned, trying to remember.

"That's impossible," the Doctor ranted, pulling at his hair. "That's ancient. Huon energy doesn't exist anymore, not for billions of years. So old that it can't be hidden by a bio-damper!"

Without warning he ran off in the direction of the entrance, tugging Rose after him. Mickey huffed and resigned himself to a night of fruitlessly chasing them around.


	3. The Runaway Bride Part 2

**Thank you for the follows, faves and reviews!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who!**

"Donna! Donna, they've found you," the Doctor yelled as he and Rose ran up to the would-be bride.

Donna gaped at him. "But you said I was safe."

"The bio-damper doesn't work," the Doctor told her tensely. "We've got to get everyone out."

"My God, it's all my family." Donna said, looking around in dismay at all the happy people around her.

Rose, all too familiar with the crushing guilt of putting her family in danger, gently laid her hand on the bride's shoulder. "They're after _you_. If we get you out of here they should follow us and leave your family alone." She glanced up at the Doctor uncertainly. "Right?"

The Doctor nodded tersely. "Out the back door!"

The three of them made a run for it. Rose had lost track of Mickey, but she couldn't help but hope he wouldn't find them in the melee of the party. He would be much safer if he stayed here.

There were santas at the back door too. "Maybe not," the Doctor called turning to the French windows leading out to the gardens. There were more santas standing out on the lawn.

"Is there another way out?" Rose asked hopefully.

Donna shook her head. "We're trapped."

The Doctor's grip on Rose's hand tightened reflexively. He was still staring out the windows at the lawn, where one of the santas was removing something from his robe. It looked like some kind of remote control, like the type kids had for electronic cars.

"Christmas trees," he hissed and Rose was painfully reminded of the previous Christmas when she, Mickey and her mum had been attacked by a spinning Christmas tree in the flat.

"What about them?" Donna asked, somewhat nervously.

"They kill." The Doctor darted off to the nearest tree, trying to shoo Donna's family back. Rose and Donna followed after him, calling out to get people to move away, but no one way paying them much attention.

While Donna led some of the smaller children further away, Rose reached Donna's mum and tried to usher her back, but the older woman was having none of it.

"Oh, for God's sakes, girl, don't humour him," she said, waving Rose off condescendingly. "What harm's a Christmas tree going to… Oh."

Rose followed her gaze to the plastic baubles, which were now floating off the trees. The santas must have changed their tactics. There was a tune playing in the background and the baubles seemed to move to it like a macabre ballet. The crowd moved in closer, awed by the display, cooing and pointing. Even the Doctor had stopped to watch warily, his body tense like a coiled spring.

One of the baubles veered off, picking up speed before smashing against the floor, exploding with a loud bang and a flash of flame.

The room filled with screams as everyone panicked and tried to make for the exits. The baubles continued to crash against anything, including some less fortunate guests. Presents were scattered across the floor and glass crunched underfoot as Rose guided Donna's mum to an empty booth and shoved her inside.

Rose ducked down with her. She couldn't see Mickey or Donna and hoped they were both alright. A man was thrown backwards into the wedding cake from the force of an explosion, but she was more interested in the Doctor.

He had somehow made his way over to the DJ's booth, and was pulling himself up behind it with a determined look.

"What's happening?" Donna's mum moaned pitifully, trying to stand, but Rose just pushed her back further into the booth.

"Oi! Santa!" the Doctor called. He was holding the sonic poised in one hand for whatever clever plan he had come up with now. "Word of advice. If you're attacking a man with a sonic screwdriver," he flipped a microphone in his other hand. "Don't let him near the sound system." He spoke the last words into the microphone before jamming the sonic into the DJ's deck.

The resulting noise made Rose clap her hands to her ears. The feedback screeched out of the speakers, disrupting something in the robot santas and causing them to shake violently. One santa's mask fell off, revealing the Sycorax like metal head beneath. A moment later they all fell to the ground, shattered into thousands of pieces.

The Doctor shut off the noise and quiet fell across the room. Rose lowered her hands. Her ears were still echoing from the harmonics, but she could make out various guests whimpering. Somewhere nearby a child was crying.

Rose stood carefully, helping Donna's mum to her feet as well. Now that the immediate crisis was over everyone was beginning to calm down. It didn't look like there were many serious injuries, a few bumps and bruises from the pushing and a couple of burns. Still, she was sure this was one event Donna's family would never forget, just not for the right reasons.

Donna was climbing out from under a table, dragging Lance after her. She seemed fine and was certainly handling the third traumatic event of her day better than the first two, rushing straight to a man who lay on the floor, clutching his side.

Rose jumped when Mickey appeared beside her. "You alright?"

"Still in one piece," she confirmed giving him a quick once over. Mickey's shirt was singed on one side, but he looked otherwise unhurt.

Rose turned to look for her other best friend. He was holding a head from one of the santas, but his eyes were fixed on her as he approached quickly with Donna following. He grabbed her into a tight hug, before pulling back to make sure she was unharmed.

"I'm fine," she assured him.

He stared at her for a long moment as if trying to ascertain if she was telling the truth. Whatever he saw must have reassured him, for he quickly turned his attention to the santa head still in his hand.

"Look at that," he directed, holding the head so that she could see it, not that it meant anything to her. Remote control for the decorations, but there's a second remote control for the robots. They're not scavengers anymore. I think someone's taken possession."

"Not the Sycorax then," Rose guessed. "Any idea who it could be?"

"Never mind all that," Donna said impatiently. "You're a doctor. People have been hurt."

"Nah, they wanted you alive," the Doctor told her. "Look." He threw one of the baubles to her and she caught it awkwardly. "They're not active now."

"All the same, you could help," Donna said pointedly.

"It's bigger than that," Rose tried to explain. "We could stop and help here, but then no one will be trying to find out what's behind this. And then a lot more people will get hurt."

"Well, why can't we let the police deal with it?" Donna asked. She was obviously scared and Rose couldn't blame her.

"Do you really trust the police with this?" Mickey snorted. The Doctor held the head to his ear, listening intently to the beeping sound it was emitting.

Rose shot Mickey a quelling look before turning back to Donna. "The Doctor, he does this sort of thing all the time. If anyone can figure it out it's him. Besides, you're connected to all this. Don't you want to find out for yourself?"

"There's still a signal!" the Doctor cut in impatiently. He ran off, screwdriver aiming in front of him as he followed the signal. Rose sighed and ran after him. She was starting to feel the effects of two adventures in one day.

They stopped in front of the hotel. The Doctor was still scanning the head. "There's someone behind this, directing the roboforms."

"But why is it me?" Donna demanded. "What have I done?"

"If we find the controller, we'll find that out. Oooh! It's up there. Something in the sky," the Doctor said pointing his sonic upwards.

Rose could hear sirens approaching in the distance. She felt as bad as Donna about the people that were hurt, but their attention was better spent here. "A spaceship in the sky and robots trying to kill us. I'm starting to notice a pattern."

"Oi!" the Doctor pouted. "It's only been twice. That's just a coincidence. If it happens a third time we can start talking about patterns. Until then…" he trailed off, examining his sonic closely. He let out a noise of frustration and lowered his arm. "I've lost the signal. Donna, we've got to get to your office. HC Clements. I think that's where it all started. Lance!" he called in delight when Donna's fiancé caught up to them. "Is it Lance? Lance, can you give us a lift?"

In the end it was Donna who drove them to H C Clements in her tiny Smart car. Lance had already had a drink and she refused to drive his bigger car. Unfortunately that meant that one of them had to be left behind and the Doctor immediately nominated Mickey when it was clear Lance was going to insist on coming.

Even with only the four of them the ride was uncomfortable. Rose and the Doctor sat in the back, but the lack of leg room meant that the Doctor's longer legs were angled so his knees were pressing into her thigh. If Donna hadn't been such a stickler for the rules of the road Rose would have pulled her knees up to her chest, but after the other woman's staunch refusal to go even slightly over the speed limit, Rose didn't want to press her luck.

They got there eventually, maybe slightly bruised from all the speed bumps, but on the whole in one piece. As Rose stretched out some of the kinks she wondered if maybe she should have volunteered to stay behind. She really was feeling rather drained and wasn't sure she was up to more running without a power nap. Still, the affronted look on Mickey's face when he had been told he couldn't come was worth a bit of discomfort.

"To you lot this might just be a locksmiths, but H C Clements was brought up twenty three years ago by the Torchwood Institute," the Doctor explained as they entered the building. He immediately went to a computer and started hacking into it, using the sonic indiscriminately.

"Who are they?"

The Doctor's jaw dropped at that. "They were behind the battle of Canary Wharf," he prompted. Donna just looked at him blankly. "Cyberman invasion. Skies over London full of Daleks?"

"They were taking people from their homes to convert them," Rose said, blinking back tears at the reminder of what for them had only been a few hours ago. It may have been six months for Donna and Lance, but there was no way she could have forgotten the terror that had gripped the world for those few hours.

Donna only shrugged. "I was in Spain."

"They had Cybermen in Spain." The Doctor was incredulous now, but Rose felt a little too drained to muster up that much of a reaction. She dropped down into a nearby desk chair, determined to rest as much as she could while she had the chance.

"Scuba diving," Donna clarified.

The Doctor half smirked at her. "That big picture, Donna. You keep on missing it. Torchwood was destroyed, but HC Clements stayed in business. I think someone else came in and took over the operation."

"It can't be just another human organisation," Rose added, spinning the chair to follow him as he moved about the room. "Whoever it is hasn't just taken over H C Clements, they've taken the robot santas as well and the last time we saw them they were being teleported somewhere. We assumed it was the Sycorax ship, but it can't have been, can it Doctor? They'd have been destroyed with the ship."

The Doctor hummed thoughtfully. "You're right, well done. I'd forgotten that."

"Well, to be fair you were pretty done in at the time," Rose pointed out.

"True," the Doctor agreed, leaning back in the office chair. "So they must have been teleported somewhere else and whoever did that reprogrammed them for whatever _this_ is."

"So they've been planning this for at least a year," Rose added.

Donna had been watching their back and forth in consternation. "But what do they want with me?"

"Somehow you've been dosed with Huon energy," the Doctor explained. "And that's a problem, because Huon energy hasn't existed since the Dark Times. The only place you'd find a Huon particle now is a remnant in the heart of the Tardis. See? That's what happened."

He grabbed a nearby coffee mug and waved it at her. "Say, that's the Tardis." He picked up a pencil as well and held the two items about a foot apart. "And that's you. The particles inside you activated. The two sets of particles magnetised and whap!" He shook the two items in an approximation of the vibration caused by the activated Huon particles and then dropped the pencil inside the mug. "You were pulled inside the Tardis."

Rose suddenly remembered when she had heard the Doctor mention Huon particles before. It was when he had finally given in and explained what happened on the Game Station. The day she had absorbed the time vortex in an effort to save him from the Daleks she had also absorbed Huon particles. The Doctor had taken them out along with everything else and saved her life in return, but he hadn't entirely been able to expel the Huon from his own system. That was why he had regenerated. And now those same particles were inside Donna.

"I'm a pencil inside a mug?" the redhead was asking in confusion.

"Yes, you are. 4H. Sums you up," the Doctor grinned and rattled the mug at her before becoming serious once more. "Lance? What was HC Clements working on? Anything top secret? Special operations? Do not enter?" He sat down in front of another computer.

Lance looked up in surprise at being included in the conversation. He had been lurking behind his fiancée, but hadn't said a word since leaving the car. It made Rose wonder exactly why he had been so insistent on coming along.

"I don't know, I'm in charge of personnel," he said defensively. "I wasn't project manager. Why am I even explaining myself? What the hell are we talking about?"

"He's just asking you a question," Rose told him slowly. "No need to get upset about it. We're all on the same side here."

The Doctor was only half paying attention, working away on the computer. "They make keys, that's the point. And look at this. We're on the third floor."

He jumped up and ran to the lift. Rose only caught a glimpse of the building plans on the screen before she followed him. She was used to him running off mid-explanation. He would get to it soon enough.

"Underneath reception, there's a basement, yes?" he queried, stepping into the lift. "Then how come when you look on the lift, there's a button marked lower basement?" He pointed to it with a huge grin plastered on his face. "There's a whole floor which doesn't exist on the official plans. So what's down there, then?"

Rose allowed herself a small smile at his barely supressed glee. He would deny it, but the more the mystery heated up the more excited he got. There was something so alluring about his anticipation that it got Rose to perk up despite her building exhaustion and the grief that still threatened to burble up given half an opportunity.

"Are you telling me this building's got a secret floor?" Lance scoffed.

The Doctor shook his head. "No, I'm showing you this building's got a secret floor." He pointed at the button again.

"Ooh, a secret floor," Rose laughed. "It's like something out of a detective novel."

"We should go visit Agatha Christie," the Doctor said happily. "I bet she's brilliant."

Rose shrugged. "You mean, _if_ we had a time machine," she said, reminding him that he had denied having such a thing only a short time before.

Donna cleared her throat in a subtle hint to get back on track. "It needs a key."

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver. "I don't." He pointed it at the button marked LB and rocked back on his heels.

Rose hopped in, and he made room for her to stand next to him. "You sure you're up to this?" he asked her, concern evident in his tone.

She smiled up at him. "I've got a bit more life in me yet," she assured him trying to sound as perky as she could manage.

The Doctor took her hand and pulled her to him so they bumped shoulders. "Right then. Thanks, you two. We can handle this. See you later."

Donna huffed and stepped in with them. "No chance, Martian. You're the man who keeps saving my life. I ain't letting you out of my sight." Rose was pleased she would be coming along. She was really starting to like Donna. She couldn't say the same about Lance. She just couldn't forget the way he was dancing with Nerys at the reception.

"Going down." If the Doctor's expression was anything to go by he felt much the same way.

"Lance?" Donna gestured sharply for him to follow, but he looked away, unsure.

"Maybe I should go to the police."

"Inside," Donna ordered.

Lance lowered his head and stepped into the lift. Rose bit her lip to stop herself from sniggering.

"To honour and obey?" the Doctor said, not quite quietly enough.

"Tell me about it, mate," Lance muttered and this time Rose couldn't contain the giggle that slipped from her lips.

"Oi."

The lifts opened into a dingy corridor lit with an almost ghostly green light, reflecting off the puddles on the floor. Water was dripping somewhere close by and there was a damp smell permeating through the air. Rose shuddered and leaned into the Doctor's side.

"It's a bit creepy," she said softly. "Why can't the bad guys ever have their secret base of operations in a nice hotel, or somewhere exotic? Why does it have to be dark, dank and sinister?"

"Oh, that's for our benefit," the Doctor told her cheerily. "Otherwise how would we _know_ it was their secret base of operations?"

"Ya got me there," Rose grinned.

"Hang on," Lance said testily. "We don't know that there're any _bad guys_ down here. This is my place of work. Just because there's a secret floor doesn't mean HC Clements is staffed by villains. This isn't a comic book."

"Maybe not," the Doctor agreed. "But if whatever's going on down here is so innocent, why don't they want anyone to know about it?"

"Do you think Mister Clements knows about this place?" Donna wondered.

"The mysterious HC Clements? I think he's part of it," the Doctor said, glancing around. "Oh, look. Transport."

They borrowed four of the Segways that were parked haphazardly by the lift. Rose was relieved not to have to walk. The corridor seemed endless as they rolled down it.

To her left Donna let out a chuckle. The Doctor followed it up with a loud "Hah!" and then the two of them were laughing together uproariously. Rose had to join in; it really was the most ridiculous thing to be doing especially with Donna and Lance in their wedding clothes.

She glanced over at Lance, but he didn't seem to see the humour in the situation. Somehow that just made her laugh harder.

The Doctor stopped them when they reached a huge bulkhead door with the ominous Torchwood logo emblazoned on it along with the words 'Authorised personnel only.' They all hopped off their Segways as the Doctor spun the wheel on the door. It opened to reveal a ladder that stretched up to what must be ground level. If she squinted Rose could just make out a hatch.

"Wait here. Just need to get my bearings. Don't do _anything_ ," he told Donna and Lance, pointing his fingers at them crossly. "Rose, you coming?"

"Um." It was the last thing she wanted to be doing right now, but the Doctor not automatically leaving her behind was behaviour she wanted to encourage. "Yeah."

"You'd better come back," Donna said sternly as the Doctor began to climb the ladder.

"I couldn't get rid of you if I tried," the Doctor called back.

Once he was high enough Rose stepped onto the ladder and began the laborious climb upwards. She could hear Donna and Lance talking below, but their voices soon drifted into meaningless sounds as she concentrated on not losing her footing on the slippery rungs.

Suddenly there was sunlight above her and then a hand was reaching down to pull her through an opening. The Doctor guided her to sit down, with her feet still resting on the ladder.

A moment later she had gathered the strength to look around. They were sitting side by side on what appeared to be the Thames flood barrier. Water crashed against the side and birds squealed above them. Rose took a deep breath of the air. Even London smog smelled better than the fetid air below.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have asked you to climb all the way up here," the Doctor said once she caught her breath.

"Why did you then?" she asked him curiously.

"What do you think of Lance?"

Rose blinked at the question. "I think he's a bit of a berk, honestly. He doesn't deserve Donna, that's for sure."

The Doctor hummed, but didn't say anything for a long moment.

"Come on, let's get back to the others," he said finally.

"Wait," Rose insisted, holding up one hand. "You dragged me all the way up here just to ask what I thought of Lance?"

The Doctor smiled gently at her. "You have a habit of seeing the things I miss," he told her. "Especially when it comes to people."

"You think he's part of whatever is happening to Donna?"

He shrugged. "Don't you?"

Rose thought about it and knew she couldn't dispute the theory. She wasn't even all that shocked that he had suggested it. "Maybe."

"You said yourself that they must have been planning this for at least a year."

"And they've only known each other six months," Rose said, cottoning on. "Well, if that's the case we really had better get down there."

She started to stand, turning on the ladder, but the Doctor stopped her.

"You're exhausted," he said frankly. "Why don't you stay up here? I promise I'll come back and get you."

"No chance," she told him firmly.

The Doctor sighed. "Fine, but at least let me go first so I can catch you when you inevitably fall."

She did, in fact, make it to the bottom without incident, but the Doctor watched each step like a hawk, waiting for any wobble or shake that indicated she was about to slip. He was starting to regret bringing her here at all. It would have been easy to leave her at the reception and bring Mickey along instead, but he liked having her where he could keep an eye on her. Her tendency to wander off in any given situation gave him nightmares and no small amount of anxiety each time it happened.

"Thames flood barrier. Right on top of us," he said for Donna's benefit. His eyes never left Rose as she traversed the final few rungs of the ladder, idly wondering if she would mind him placing his hands on her hips to guide her the rest of the way. "Torchwood snuck in and built this place underneath."

"What, there's like a secret base hidden underneath a major London landmark?" Donna asked, gobsmacked.

"I know. Unheard of." The Doctor grinned at Rose and was heartened to see her smile genuinely in response.

He took her hand and guided her back down the long corridor, expecting Donna and Lance to follow. There was another door not far away, this one sporting a hazardous materials sign. He suspected they would start to find some of the answers there.

The door was locked, but the sonic screwdriver made short work of that and he opened the door into a spic and span laboratory, full of tubes and columns all connected together with a bubbling liquid flowing amongst them. And now it was all starting to make sense.

"Ooh, look at this. Stunning!" he said, forcing cheerfulness into his tone despite the sinking feeling he was getting.

Rose smirked at him. "Yes, lots of sciency equipment that's probably doing something nefarious. Stunning's exactly the word I was thinking."

The Doctor quirked his head to one side. "Is sciency a word?"

She snorted. "Half the stuff you come out with and you're going to quibble over sciency?"

"What does it _do_?" Donna interrupted.

"Particle extrusion. Hold on," the Doctor explained patiently, while dropping Rose's hand to get a closer look. He tapped on one of the tubes of bubbling liquid. "Brilliant! They've been manufacturing Huon particles. Course, my people got rid of Huons. They unravelled the atomic structure."

Lance jumped on that with a surprising level of interest given his apathy thus far. "Your people? Who are they? What company do you represent?"

"Oh, I'm a freelancer," the Doctor said breezily. He nudged Rose playfully. "This is my lab assistant." He ignored the glare he got for that and darted over to examine another tube of liquid. "But this lot are rebuilding them. They've been using the river. Extruding them through a flat hydrogen base so they've got the end result. Huon particles in liquid form."

"And that's what's inside me?" Donna's voice quivered slightly, fear starting to creep through the bravado she wore like a shield.

Instead of answering the Doctor picked up a phial of the liquid that wasn't connected to the rest and twisted the knob on top, activating the particles inside. The phial immediately began to glow, seconds later Donna's whole body followed suit. Rose gasped behind him.

"Oh, my God!" Donna exclaimed, staring down at herself in disbelief.

But the details were starting to click into place in the Doctor's mind now and the excitement of solving a problem spiked his adrenaline and made it difficult to keep himself still.

"Genius," he declared happily. "Because the particles are inert, they need something living to catalyse inside and that's you. Saturate the body and then. Ha!" Donna flinched away from him.

Of course, it really was that simple. Now he just had to make the humans understand. "The wedding! Yes, you're getting married, that's it! Best day of your life, walking down the aisle. Oh, your body's a battleground! There's a chemical war inside! Adrenaline, acetylcholine. Wham! go the endorphins. Oh, you're cooking! Yeah, you're like a walking oven. A pressure cooker, a microwave, all churning away. The particles reach boiling point. Shazam!"

Donna's hand came out of nowhere, pain blooming across his cheek, making him stumble back. However this completely uncalled for and totally surprising event, was eclipsed by the fact that there was no reaction from Rose as he was slapped – hard – by the woman he was trying to save when he was just trying to explain…

It was when he realised that she hadn't stopped _him_ from ranting like a madman at this terrified woman that he knew something was wrong.

Rose was half draped against one of the columns, holding herself up with one arm slung over a tube, while the other hand was pressed firmly against the side of her head. She was breathing heavily and her skin looked paler than he liked with a sheen of sweat across her brow.

"Rose?" he rushed to her side, shoving the phial into his pocket and sliding one arm around her waist to help support her weight.

"I'm alrigh' I think," she mumbled, pushing her hair away from her face. "It was like a sudden migraine. Fading now."

The Doctor laid his hand on her forehead. She was unnaturally warm, especially in the cold lab. A quick scan with the sonic didn't pick up anything immediately life threatening, but the sooner he could get her back to the Tardis the better.

"How's your vision?" he asked quickly. "Any nausea, dizziness, sensitivity to light?"

She shook her head, then winced at the sensation. "No. Just a headache. Probably just tired."

"Hmmm," he waved the sonic back in forth in front of her face. Familiar with this process, Rose followed it with her eyes. She seemed to have no problem tracking it. "Straight to bed after this," he told her.

"Doctor's orders?" She was trying for cheeky, but just seemed rather wan.

"That's right." He bopped her on the nose and reluctantly let her go. She wobbled for a second, but quickly regained her balance.

Rose was looking over his shoulder. He followed her gaze to find Donna had come up behind him, a worried expression on her face as she watched them carefully. Lance was still off in the corner, seemingly unaffected by any of this. Rose was right; a man that could blithely stand and watch, unconcerned, while his fiancée glowed gold and another young woman almost fainted in front of him, was not worthy of a woman like Donna.

"Sorry," Rose said softly to the older woman. "You should be looking after Donna, not fussing over me. She's the ones with these Huon's inside her."

"She's fine," the Doctor waved her off, still watching to make sure she wouldn't keel over any second.

"Huon particles made you regenerate," she whispered. "You took them out of me because I would have died if you didn't. What are they doing to her?"

The Doctor sighed. "If left unchecked…" he turned to Donna, trying to be as comforting as possible. "They could kill you," he said regretfully. "But I promise it won't come to that."

Donna looked like she might be sick. "Oh, my God."

"I'll sort it out, Donna," he said desperately. "Whatever's been done to you, I'll reverse it. There's still time."

" **Oh, the time to save her has long since passed."**

The voice came out of nowhere. Female and speaking in English. It didn't give him much to go on while on Earth, but the slight accent didn't originate from this planet and something about the shape of her words suggested the mouth wasn't quite suited to the language.

As he came to the conclusion that the mystery speaker was an alien, possibly not humanoid, one of the walls slid upwards, revealing a much larger space, dominated by a huge, ominous hole. It looked deep enough that if someone were to fall into it their heart would give out to terror long before they hit the bottom.

" **I have waited so long, hibernating at the edge of the universe until the secret heart was uncovered and called out to waken!"**

Roboforms, now cloaked in black robes rather than the fake Santa coats, stepped out of the shadows, each one holding a weapon aimed at the Doctor and his human friends. Out of the corner of his eye the Doctor saw Lance, seemingly in a panic, rush out of the laboratory door. He briefly considered that he might be wrong about Lance, that he was just a coward, not a terrible human being who had betrayed the woman who loved him, but he was more concerned about the guns. He stepped in front of Rose protectively.

"Someone's been digging," he called loudly, leaning out as far as he dared over the pit, hoping that the alien female would concentrate on him and leave the two women alone. "Oh, very Torchwood. Drilled by laser. How far down does it go?"

" **Down and down, all the way to the centre of the Earth!"**

"Really?" It wasn't inconceivable, but what was there at the centre of the planet worth the effort. "Seriously? What for?"

"Some sort of power source?" Rose guessed, her hand slipping into his. "Like what they were drilling for on Krop Tor?"

"They were responding to a signal emanating from beneath the planet's surface," the Doctor reminded her. "There's no such signal coming from the centre of the Earth. Believe me, I'd know."

" **Such a sweet couple. With a pretty flower girl to decorate their path."**

The Doctor chose to ignore the implications about himself and Donna. The reference to Rose as 'flower girl' meant that the alien female had been watching them for long enough to hear her name. "Only a madman talks to thin air and trust me, you don't want to make me mad. Where are you?"

" **High in the sky. Floating so high on Christmas night."**

Whoever she was, she was in orbit, so the signal he had detected back at the reception must originate from her location. As if he needed more confirmation that she was the being in charge. "I didn't come all this way to talk on the intercom. Come on, let's have a look at you!" Dozens of possibilities flashed through his mind, each more unlikely than the last and he couldn't think why any of the potential alien races who _could_ do this, _would_.

" **Who are you with such command?"**

The Doctor drew himself up. If she could see him then he would start off looking as intimidating as he possibly could. "I'm the Doctor."

She was unimpressed. **"Prepare your best medicines, doctor man, for you will be sick at heart."**

There was a bright flash of light. Rose had been right, that was the same teleportation technology that had beamed the roboforms away last Christmas. When it cleared a gigantic red alien stood beside the pit.

The Doctor took a step back in alarm. Beside him Donna gave a tiny little scream.

"She's like a spider," Rose gasped, her grip on his hand tightening. And because she was Rose she tried to laugh her fear away. "I don't think we'll be putting that one outside in a glass."

"Racnoss? But that's impossible. You're one of the Racnoss?" the Doctor managed, taking in the red spider-like creature. Eight huge legs topped by a humanoid torso. The almost human looking face disfigured by the eyes that blinked along its forehead and the sharp fangs protruding from its mouth.

The Racnoss hissed proudly. "Empress of the Racnoss."

The Doctor narrowed his eyes speculatively. "If you're the Empress, where's the rest of the Racnoss? Or, are you the only one?"

She only preened at him. "Such a sharp mind."

When outnumbered and outgunned, always keep them talking. That could have been the Doctor's motto. "That's it, the last of your kind." He leaned towards Donna and Rose. "The Racnoss come from the Dark Times, billions of years ago. Billions. They were carnivores, omnivores. They devoured whole planets."

"Racnoss are born starving. Is that our fault?" the Empress sneered.

"That's awful," Rose choked.

"But not people, right?" Donna begged. "They don't eat people."

"Somehow I don't think anything is off the menu," Rose shuddered.

The Doctor considered lying, but he needed Donna to understand just how serious this was, in case he needed to take drastic action later. "HC Clements, did he wear those, those er, black and white shoes?"

Despite the situation Donna actually looked amused at the reminder. "He did. We used to laugh. We used to call him the fat cat in spats."

The Doctor pointed upwards to where the ceiling was covered with webs. A pair of feet were sticking out, wearing the distinctive shoes.

"Oh, my God!" Donna gaped.

The Empress merely smiled at them. "My Christmas dinner." She made a sound that could only be a laugh, a creepy ca-ca-ca.

"If all you're interested in is feeding then why this?" Rose demanded, gesturing to the pit. "There can't be anything at the centre of the Earth that's worth eating?"

The Empress grinned through her pincers. "So the flower girl does more than just look pretty," she said snidely.

The Doctor didn't want the Empress spending too much time contemplating Rose, terrified she would decide his best friend would make a tasty starter. "You shouldn't even exist. Way back in history, the fledgling Empires went to war against the Racnoss. They were wiped out."

"Except for me," the Empress said, leaning back on her haunches and gesturing with her wicked looking pincers.

Lance chose that moment to appear on the walkway above the Empress. He shushed them with his free hand, the other clutching a large axe.

"But that's what I've got inside me, that Huon energy thing," Donna said suddenly, trying to keep the Empress' attention on her. "Oi! Look at me, lady, I'm talking. Where do I fit in? How comes I get all stacked up with these Huon particles? Look at me, you! Look me in the eye and tell me."

The Empress smiled through her pointed teeth. "The bride is so feisty."

Lance was right behind her now, the axe raised and prepared to strike. Maybe he had been wrong about Donna's intended. He might, just might, be slightly more worthy than the Doctor had believed.

But Donna was still ranting. "Yes, I am! And I don't know what you are, you big thing, but a spider's just a spider and an axe is an axe! Now, do it!" she ordered.

Lance drew the axe back further, preparing to take the swing that would take of the Empress' head, terror written on every line of his face. The Racnoss half turned towards him, her own expression a mask of horror as the axe swung back further.

Then Lance looked over at Donna, amusement creeping into his eyes before he began to laugh, lowering the axe. And at this confirmation of Lance's true intentions, this removal of any doubt of the man's character, the final pieces fell into place in the Doctor's mind.

"Oh no." Rose was already moving to wrap her arms around Donna's shoulders, her compassion far outweighing the anger the Doctor knew she would be longing to unleash.

"That was a good one. Your face." Lance chortled.

The Empress laughed along with him. "Lance is funny."

Donna looked between them in confusion. "What?" She shook Rose off absently and moved away from her, eyes glued to her fiancé and the Empress of the Racnoss.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said sadly. It was times like this that really took the joy out of being right.

Donna still didn't seem to understand what was happening. "Sorry for what? Lance, don't be so stupid! Get her!"

"God, she's thick!" Lance said disgustedly. "Months I've had to put up with her. Months. A woman who can't even point to Germany on a map."

"Oh, like you're such a prize," Rose snapped. "A traitor to the human race. You're repulsive. She's far too good for you."

Lance smirked at her. "You might want to watch who you mouth off at, sweetheart." He eyed her up and down suggestively. "I've always been partial to blondes, but that won't help you if you hack me off."

The Doctor felt that familiar rage begin to build in his gut at the way this poor excuse for a human being was looking at Rose. He forced it down, painfully. Not only would she not appreciate him leaping to her defence, getting into a verbal sparring match, satisfying as it might be, wouldn't help Donna.

And Rose didn't exactly need him to defend her. "As if I would ever want a foul, twisted little man who would sell out his whole planet… for what exactly? I'd rather they shot me dead right now."

Donna was staring at them all, the beginnings of tears building in her eyes. "I don't understand," she said plaintively.

"How did you meet him?" the Doctor asked calmly. He pulled Rose back to stand between them and she immediately softened at the look on the redhead's face.

"In the office," Donna replied.

The Doctor sighed internally, not wanting to be the one to tell her, but knowing he would be kinder than Lance. "He made you coffee."

"What?" Donna shook her head, not understanding, or not wanting to, just how thoroughly she had been betrayed.

Lance gazed down at her patronisingly. "Every day, I made you coffee."

"You had to be dosed with liquid particles over six months," the Doctor explained as Rose looked on sadly.

"He was poisoning me." She sounded defeated, surrounded by the evidence of her fiancé's crime. He let Rose comfort her, she was always much better than he was at that, while he concentrated on the matter at hand.

"It was all there in the job title," he said loudly. "The Head of Human Resources."

Lance puffed up proudly. "This time, it's personnel."

Rose huffed in annoyance. "This isn't an interview," she said sarcastically. "No need to come up with clever one-liners."

"But, we were getting married," Donna said dully.

"Well, I couldn't risk you running off. I had to say yes," Lance said, waving his hands in the air. "And then I was stuck with a woman who thinks the height of excitement is a new flavour Pringle. Oh, I had to sit there and listen to all that yap, yap, yap. Oh, Brad and Angelina. Is Posh pregnant? X Factor, Atkins Diet, Feng Shui, split ends, text me, text me, text me. Dear God, the never ending fountain of fat, stupid trivia." He turned to the empress, as though expecting her to agree. "I deserve a medal!"

The Doctor could barely look at Donna as the man she loved so utterly destroyed her. "Oh, is that what she's offered you?" he said harshly. "The Empress of the Racnoss? What are you, her consort?" he added scathingly.

"It's better than a night with her," Lance said spitefully.

"But… I love you." The Doctor didn't think he had ever heard anyone sound as heartbroken as Donna did in that moment. A few hours ago she had been preparing to marry the man she loved and now here she was being told that it was all a lie and she had been used as the subject of an experiment they still didn't know the purpose of.

"That's what made it easy," Lance taunted. "It's like you said, Doctor. The big picture. What's the point of it all if the human race is nothing? That's what the Empress can give me. The chance to go out there. To see it. The size of it all. I think you understand that, don't you, Doctor? You and your girlfriend."

The Empress twisted her oversized head to glare at him. "Who is this little physician? And his precious little flower girl?"

Lance shrugged. "She said Martian."

"Oh, I'm sort of… homeless," the Doctor said casually, deciding the name of his home world was better kept secret for a while longer. "But the point is; what's down there? The Racnoss are extinct. What's going to help you four thousand miles down? Because Rose is right, that's just the molten core of the Earth, there's nothing for you to eat down there."

"I think he wants us to talk," Lance glared at him, but there was a trace of amusement in his tone. He still thought he held all the cards.

"I think so, too," the Empress agreed.

"Oh, well, nice try," Rose said lightly. "Sure you don't want to save everyone time later and just tell us the plan now?"

"All we need is Donna," Lance snarled.

The Empress gestured grandly to the roboforms. "Kill this chattering little doctor man and his wilting flower."

"Oi," Rose shouted, incensed, even as the roboforms moved into position. "Who are you calling wilting?"

Donna moved in between them and the roboforms. "Don't you hurt them!"

"No, no, Donna," the Doctor reassured her, trying to move her aside. "It's all right."

"No, I won't let them," she insisted, spreading her arms wide to make herself as big a target as possible.

"At arms!" the Empress called to the roboforms. As one they cocked their guns, pointing them squarely at the Time Lord and his human friends.

The Doctor held up one finger warningly. "Ah, now. Except-"

"Take aim!" came the next order.

"Well, I just want to point out the obvious," the Doctor stalled. Rose was tense beside him, despite everything, despite the exhaustion that was held at bay only by the adrenaline of their current situation, trusting him as ever to get them out of their latest predicament.

"They won't hit the bride," the Empress assured him. "They're such very good shots."

"Just, just, just, just, just hold on. Hold on just a tick. Just a tiny little, just a tick," the Doctor was rambling now, anything to delay the final order. "If you think about it, the particles activated in Donna and drew her inside my spaceship. So reverse it, and the spaceship comes to her." He twisted the knob on the phial.

As before, the Huons and Donna both began to glow brightly, but this time the blessed sound of his Tardis materialising filled the air.

"Fire!"

But by then they were safe inside the Tardis and the Doctor was more concerned with the blonde who had fallen into his arms.

 **Author's note**

I've been really blown away by how much love Mickey gets, both here and on A03. I think the character's brilliant, but I wasn't expecting this reaction.

That said, I feel a bit bad that Mickey isn't as much of a presence for this part of the story. He was originally supposed to be, but I realised half way through that he was just standing about doing nothing, so I had to go back and edit him out.

But don't worry, he will be back. He will be a big part of the story as a whole and I'm really looking forward to his next appearance.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter anyway.


	4. The Runaway Bride Part 3

Hi! I just realised my line breaks weren't coming through. I've corrected it for this chapter and at some point I'll go back and correct it for the others as well.

I hope you enjoy the chapter.

* * *

"Rose. Can you hear me? Rose?"

The Doctor's voice sounded like it was coming from a long way away, even though she was fairly certain those were his arms wrapped around her waist.

She had managed to stay on her feet with his help, but her vision was spotted and she was fairly certain she was about to vomit all over the Doctor's chucks. Or worse, Donna's wedding dress. Her head throbbed all over until she had to clench her eyes shut to stop one of the inputs to her overstimulated brain.

"What's wrong with her?" Donna was fretting. "That migraine again?"

"It can't be. It's too much of a coincidence," the Doctor was muttering near her ear. "Donna, turn off the Huon. The – the knob on the… yes, that!"

The pain suddenly faded and Rose blinked at its sudden absence. "I'm OK," she gasped, trying to stand upright, but the Doctor held her still for a few moments longer. Without the pain to distract her Rose became aware of the gunfire coming from outside the Tardis doors. They were still underneath the Thames.

"Honestly, I'm fine," she tried again. This time her voice was steadier and she felt much less wobbly, so she deliberately extricated herself from between his arms. "We can't stay here."

The Doctor studied her for a moment, before nodding and hopping over to the console to dematerialise the Tardis. Rose breathed a sigh of relief as the gunfire quieted and she knew they were safe.

"What's a coincidence?" she asked worriedly, as he darted back to her, sonic in hand and waving it in front of her face.

"You had a reaction both times the Huon particles were activated," the Doctor told her distractedly as he examined the readings on the screwdriver. "Not like Donna, you didn't glow, but the two events have to be connected." He slammed the screwdriver down on the console and pulled out another device, flashing it in her eyes until she had to blink and look away.

Rose tried to wrap her tired brain around that one as he scanned her with a third and then a fourth seemingly innocuous device. How could she be reacting to Huon energy? The Doctor had scanned her multiple times after the Game Station, determined not to leave a trace of the dreaded particles. He had been so thorough, much to her frustration at the time. There was no way he had missed something.

"What about the first time?" the Doctor asked her worriedly. "When Donna first appeared on the Tardis. Did you feel anything then?"

"Um…" Rose cast her mind back. She had taken a paracetamol for the headache that she had after her shower. She had thought it was just because she had been crying, but it was possible she had been affected by the Huon as Donna was transported onto the ship. "I'm not sure. Maybe."

"There's nothing," he said, dropping the latest device and running his fingers through his hair. "No Huon in your system, nothing I can see that would explain why you're reacting like this." He glanced towards the main area of the Tardis hopefully. "I'll have to do a full scan in the med-bay."

"Yeah, but later, right?" Rose said soothingly. "I'm fine now and we've got to stop the Empress from doing whatever it is she's doing with that pit."

Donna, seemingly satisfied that Rose was alright, at least for the moment, drifted over to the jump seat, sitting heavily all the while watching them with heavy eyes.

The Doctor was staring at her numbly and Rose knew that he was panicking and trying not to show it. She reached out and took his hand, trying to offer him as much comfort as she could despite the fact that she was scared too. "We'll sort it, Doctor. But we have to help Donna too. She _does_ have these particles inside her. I promise that once we've worked out everything else I'll let you run as many tests as you want."

"I'm going to hold you to that," he told her, the barest hint of a smile playing about his lips.

"And I'm probably going to regret it," she said wistfully.

He gave her a true smile then, but Rose knew he was just pushing his worry down to stop _her_ from worrying.

The Time Lord grabbed a lever on the console and pulled it down. Donna, who had stayed quiet during their conversation, looked up as the Tardis began to shake. Rose was dismayed to see tears were streaking down her face, smudging her carefully applied make up.

The Doctor was rattling on about something, but Rose only had eyes for the woman whose whole world had been turned upside down. Pushing aside her own problems and the aftermath of the migraine she went to Donna's side, laying one hand on the older woman's arm in a gesture of comfort.

"You know what I said before about time machines?" the Doctor was saying, seemingly unaware that neither of his companions was really listening. "Well, I lied. And now we're going to use it. We need to find out what the Empress of the Racnoss is digging up. If something's buried at the planet's core, it must've been there since the beginning. That's just brilliant! Molto bene. I've always wanted to see this. We're going further back than I've ever been before!"

That caught Rose's attention. "What, seriously? We're going to see the big bang?"

"Yep," the Doctor grinned, leaning back on his heels. "Want to see?"

Even as tired as she was there was no way she could miss this. She let him pull her up next to him, peering at the scanner eagerly.

"Come on, Donna," she said encouragingly. There was little she could do to make the redhead's situation any better, but she could at least make sure Donna didn't miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime.

"All I want to see is my bed," Donna said dejectedly, but allowed herself to be dragged over to the scanner.

"Oh, that scanner's a bit small," the Doctor said as both women tried to get in close enough to see. "How about this?" He ran over to the doors, pulling them open to stare into deep space.

Rose followed bemusedly, tugging Donna over to join him. "You never said we could open the door in space. How come we've never done this before?"

"You never asked," he said indignantly.

"I didn't think of it," she replied pointedly. "Is that the extrapolator shielding letting us breathe?"

"Nah, the Tardis has her own force shields for holding in the air," he explained, making room for the two women to stand in the doorway.

He peered over Rose's head at the space debris floating around them. "Rose Tyler, Donna Noble, welcome to the creation of the Earth."

They gazed out silently for a long moment. There was a cloud of dust before them, with the sun glowing behind it, turning the dust beautiful shades of red and orange before blending into purples and blues that were almost indistinguishable from the blue black of space. "We've gone back four point six billion years. There's no solar system, not yet. Only dust and rocks and gas. That's the Sun, over there. Brand new. Just beginning to burn."

"It's beautiful," Rose breathed. The Doctor always took her to the most wonderful places, but being here, about to watch her own planet come to life, was the most incredible thing she had ever experienced. "I've seen the end of the world, now I get to watch it begin."

The Doctor smiled down at her. "Full circle, only in reverse."

"Wait, I don't understand," Donna cut in. "Where's the Earth?"

"All around us in the dust," the Doctor said softly and they all watched in silence for a long moment.

"Puts the wedding in perspective," Donna said finally. "Lance was right. We're just tiny."

"No, but that's what you do," the Doctor enthused. "The human race – making sense out of chaos. Marking it out with weddings and Christmas and calendars. This whole process is beautiful, but only if it's being observed."

"It's so hard to believe," Rose said, awestruck. "The whole Earth, the human race and all those other species will come into being right there. But now it's just atoms floating in space. And no one else is ever going to see this, but us."

"Isn't that brilliant?" the Doctor grinned.

She smiled back, not even the lingering twinges of pain in her head could dampen her enthusiasm.

"I think that's the Isle of Wight," Donna said wryly. Rose turned back to see a large rock floating overhead. They all laughed and she was pleased to see some of the tension ebb out of the redhead's features.

"Eventually, gravity takes hold," the Doctor lectured. "Say, one big rock, heavier than the others, starts to pull the other rocks towards it. All the dust and gas and elements get pulled in. Everything, piling in until you get…"

"The Earth," Donna breathed, a genuine smile lighting up her face.

"But the question is; what was that first rock?" the Doctor said.

As if on cue a spaceship drifted out of the dust cloud. It was shaped like a huge star with seven points and shone silver against the blue and black of deep space.

"Look," Donna was gaping at the ship in awe.

"Is that them?" Rose wondered aloud.

"Yep," the Doctor said grimly. He watched with them for a moment longer and then ran up the walkway to the console. "Hold on. The Racnoss are hiding from the war. What's it doing?"

He was winding something on the console, but Rose was too busy staring out into space where time was moving more quickly than on the Tardis. The rocks, dust and general debris all began to gather, attracted by the gravity of the ship, pulling in faster and faster, swirling around and around, making the central mass stronger, and the attracting force more powerful by the second.

"Exactly what you said," Donna breathed.

Rose couldn't look away as her planet formed in front of her. "It's incredible," she whispered.

The Doctor was suddenly standing right behind her again. "Oh, they didn't just bury something at the centre of the Earth. They became the centre of the Earth. The first rock!"

"So it's not an invasion?" Rose asked hopefully. "It's a rescue mission."

"Except after the Empress has rescued the Racnoss trapped in the centre of the Earth she'll lead them out to feast on the populace of the Earth," the Doctor pointed out.

"Alright," she shrugged. "But other than that." She gazed back out at the Earth's first moments. "So they've been planning this a bit longer than a year then."

He laughed teasingly. "Bit longer, yeah."

She was about to retort sarcastically, but before she could even open her mouth she was overcome by the crippling pain she had suffered twice now. Both hands flew to the sides of her head and she was barely aware that she was falling until two pairs of hands reached out to catch her.

The doors slammed, causing Rose to whimper at the overly loud banging. Someone was lowering her to the grating, probably Donna as she could hear the Doctor's voice coming from further away.

"Remember that little trick of mine, particles pulling particles. Well, it works in reverse. They're pulling us back!" he was yelling.

Rose struggled against Donna, who was holding her down for some reason. She was sure she was going to be sick any moment and didn't want to get it on Donna's dress. "It's alright, sweetheart," Donna was saying, rubbing her back in soothing circles.

The pain dissipated at last and Rose was able to draw in a deep breath. "What happened this time?" There was something wet on her lip and she raised a shaky hand to wipe at it. It came away smeared in blood. She hadn't had a nosebleed since she was a kid and came off second best in a fight with an overzealous swing.

"They pulled us back," Donna said haltingly. Rose glanced up to see the redhead's face was paler than ever. Red spots were dotted across the bodice of her dress. "Don't worry about it," she said quickly, following Rose's gaze. "I think after the wedding day I've had this thing can go straight in the bin."

The Doctor was there then, pushing Donna aside so he could get a good look at Rose. He tried to press a handkerchief to her nose, but she pushed his hand away, taking the handkerchief to clean herself up.

"It's getting worse, each time," he said seriously.

"Then let's not go activating any more particles," Rose tried for stern, but she was sure she came off as pitiful. That wouldn't help with the Doctor's hovering. She stood carefully, pleased she didn't feel too wobbly. Even so, she didn't object when the Doctor took hold of her arm.

"You could stay here," he tried, hopefully. "They won't be able to get in. You'll be able to rest until I come back and can run those tests."

Rose actually considered it for half a second, but quickly shook her head. "I'll still feel it if they activate the particles, even from here and there's no way I'll be able to sleep. At least if I'm with you I can help."

The Doctor sighed, but knew her well enough by now to not try and change her mind. "Come on, then. Allons-y."

He kept a tight grip on her hand as he led them out of the Tardis and back into the long corridor they had trundled down earlier. "We're about two hundred yards to the right," he said quietly. "I managed to give us a bump so we wouldn't land directly on top of them. Buys us a bit of time to come up with a plan."

" _You_ , come up with a plan?" Rose joked half-heartedly. She was still feeling wretched from the latest attack, regretting the decision not to stay behind already, but knew she would have gone crazy sitting there on her own, waiting for them to come back and not knowing if they were alive or dead.

"It's been known to happen," the Doctor grinned back. Now that she had refused to stay behind he was going to pretend everything was fine. At least until they got back to the Tardis.

They arrived back at the laboratory door. Rose was feeling rather breathless from the exertion, but tried desperately to act normally. She leaned against the wall as the Doctor pulled out his stethoscope and pressed the bell to the door.

"But I still don't understand. I'm full of particles, but what for?" Donna asked. With the Doctor thoroughly distracted for a moment Rose let her eyes slip closed.

"There's a Racnoss web at the centre of the Earth, but my people unravelled their power source. The Huon particles ceased to exist but the Racnoss were stuck," the Doctor explained. "They've just taken hibernation for billions of years. Frozen, dead, kaput. So you're the new key. Brand new particles, living particles! They need you to open it and you have never been so quiet."

There was a pause and Rose wondered if they had been discovered. Strangely, she couldn't muster up the energy to worry about it. "Oh!"

"What?" she murmured. She forced her eyes to flutter open to find that she and the Doctor were alone in the corridor. "Where did she go?"

"They've taken her," he said softly. He took her arm and helped her slide down to the floor. "Rose, I'm going to need you to stay here."

"What? No," she tried to rouse herself enough to argue, but the Doctor held her firmly.

"I need to rescue Donna," he reminded her. "And right now you can barely stand. If I go in there with you like this we'll all end up getting killed. Now, will you please, for once, do as I say and stay here?"

He looked so worried that Rose nodded without thinking. To be honest she was feeling so tired and her head, while not throbbing in agony anymore, was still aching dully. "Don't make a habit of this," she whispered.

He smiled and pressed his lips to her hair. And then he was gone and Rose couldn't think of any reason why she should keep her eyes open a second longer.

* * *

"I hate you." It may have been a bit redundant by now, but if these were her last moments then Donna wanted to make sure it got said.

Lance scoffed at her. "Yeah, I think we've gone a bit beyond that now, sweetheart." The endearment, which once made her feel warm inside now made her blood run cold. How could she ever have loved this backstabbing piece of filth?

The Empress stood just beneath them, where they were hanging from the ceiling above the massive pit, wrapped in sticky webs. Donna had no idea what had happened while they had been gone, but if the fact that Lance was trussed up next to her was anything to go by, then it seemed the relationship had soured quickly. She took a deep satisfaction in that. "My golden couple, together at last. Your awful wedded life. Tell me, do you want to be released?"

"Yes!" Donna snapped, even more annoyed when she realised that Lance had said it with her.

The Empress made a clicking noise that might have been intended as a snort of anger. "You're supposed to say, I do."

"Huh. No chance," Lance snorted. Like he had any right to be angry about this. She was the one that had been used and betrayed.

"Say it!" the empress hissed. A frisson of terror zinged through Donna at that and she looked to Lance desperately. She couldn't imagine a worse setting for her vows, but she wasn't about to deny a being that wanted to devour her entire species.

It seemed Lance felt the same way. "I do."

"I do," Donna echoed.

The Empress rocked forward eagerly. "I… don't! Activate the particles. Purge every last one."

The glowing was back only this time it was Lance as well. She was absurdly pleased that she was so much brighter than he was even as she worried about what this would mean for poor Rose.

"And release!"

There was a brief tugging sensation on every inch of her skin before the glowing specks that hovered around her dropped away into the pit below.

"The secret heart unlocks, and they will waken from their Sleep of Ages," the Empress exalted.

Despite the Doctor's explanations Donna still wasn't that clear on what was going on. "Who will? What's down there?"

Lance glared at her in disdain. Fortunately she no longer cared what he thought of her. "How thick are you?"

"My children, the long lost Racnoss, now reborn to feast on flesh!" the Empress swayed in joy as she called down to the pit below. Donna really hoped that the scratching sound coming from deep down in the pit was her imagination and not the sound of thousands of spiders breaking free of their spaceship to come and feast on the human race. "The web star shall come to me."

"My babies will be hungry," the Empress told them, with the air of someone confiding a great secret. "They need sustenance. Perish the web."

Beside her Lance was panicking, but all Donna could feel was numb. "Use her, not me! Use her!"

"Oh, my funny little Lance! But you are quite impolite to your lady friend. The Empress does not approve."

Huge mandibles reached up, slicing through the web as easily as scissors through the thinnest paper. Donna barely had time to react before Lance was falling, screaming into the pit.

"Lance!" Donna cried.

"Harvest the humans! Reduce them to meat," the Empress ordered eagerly.

There was a rushing sound in Donna's ears as she stared down into the pit. Lance was gone – dead – and she didn't know how to feel. And she wouldn't have time to figure it out before she was eaten by giant spiders.

"My children are climbing towards me and none shall stop them," the Empress gloated. "So you might as well unmask, my clever little doctor man."

Donna tore her eyes away from the pit, hope building within her when she saw the Doctor throwing aside one of the robots robes. She renewed her struggles against the web holding her suspended.

"Oh well. Nice try," he said nonchalantly. "I've got you, Donna!"

He aimed his whirring, glowing stick thing at her and the web began to disintegrate around her.

"I'm going to fall!" she cried, terrified, fingers trying to grasp at anything to stop her from following Lance into the pit.

"You're going to swing!" the Doctor corrected. Sure enough her fingers latched onto a cord of web that was still intact, just as the rest of the web gave way. "I've got you!"

She clung to the cord, her stomach lurching as it seemed for a long moment that it hadn't worked, that she really was going to fall, then the cord stopped unravelling and the momentum of her fall shifted so she was flying through the air towards the Doctor's waiting arms.

Or, as it happened, the hard ground beneath the landing the Doctor was standing on.

"Oh. Sorry," she heard from somewhere above her.

"Thanks for nothing," she said sarcastically. "How does Rose put up with you?" And where was the blonde girl anyway?

A hissing, chortling noise issued from the Empress' mouth as she climbed to her feet. "The doctor man amuses me."

"Empress of the Racnoss, I give you one last chance. I can find you a planet. I can find you and your children a place in the universe to co-exist. Take that offer and end this now." For the first time since she met him the Doctor spoke with authority, like he was in complete control of the situation. Despite all previous experience with the man as an eccentric, occasionally happy-go-lucky kind of alien she actually found herself believing he might get them out of this.

The Empress was not as impressed. "These men are so funny."

"What's your answer?" the Doctor demanded.

"Oh, I'm afraid I have to decline," the Empress said smugly.

"Then what happens next is your own doing," he said coldly.

"I'll show you what happens next," the Empress snarled. "At arms" she called to the robots, which immediately raised their weapons to point them directly at the Doctor. Apparently they didn't see Donna as much of a threat so they all ignored her. "Take aim! And –"

"Relax," the Doctor finished.

All the robots slumped in place, their weapons now pointing at the ground.

"What did you do?" Donna asked incredulously.

The Doctor just stood there, the picture of unconcerned bystander. "Guess what I've got, Donna?" He pulled his hands out of his pockets and with them came one of the remote control things the robots were carrying. "Pockets."

"How did that fit in there?" she demanded, ignoring the jibe at her for the snide comments she had made on the street earlier, back when she still believed she was getting married today. Hard to believe that was only a couple of hours ago.

"They're bigger on the inside," he told her proudly.

The Empress was not concerned by the sudden uselessness of her army. "Roboforms are not necessary. My children may feast on Martian flesh."

"Oh, but I'm not from Mars," the Doctor said evenly.

"Then where?" the Empress demanded.

"My home planet is far away and long since gone," the Doctor said and although his tone was even Donna could sense a deep sadness behind it that spoke of an unimaginable loss. "But its name lives on. Gallifrey."

The Empress reared and hissed, her pincer arms waving about in panic. "They murdered the Racnoss!"

"I warned you. You did this," the Doctor informed her, in that same distant, unfeeling voice. He reached into another one of his supposedly bigger on the inside pockets and pulled out a handful of Christmas baubles, the same ones that had exploded all over the reception.

The Empress pleaded with him to stop, but the Doctor ignored her, throwing the decorations into the air and then using the remote control to fly them into the walls. A few surrounded the Empress, forcing her to stay in one place and not advance on the Doctor or Donna. Explosions rocked the ground and she had to struggle to stay upright as fire arced up from the ground in front of her.

River water began pouring through some of the new holes, stinking Thames river water that sprayed over Donna and her by now ruined wedding dress. The water quickly began to flood the room, flowing into the pit. Somewhere, miles below her, she could hear the screams of alien spiders as they were flushed back down to the centre of the Earth, there to drown.

Donna stared in horror at the scene before her, barely registering when a cold damp hand wrapped around her forearm and began tugging her away.

"Come on. Time I got you out," the Doctor was saying, pushing her towards the stairs that led to the surface. "We'll need to collect Rose along the way."

Donna wanted to ask where the blonde was, but the spray was getting a bit too powerful for her to want to risk opening her mouth.

As they exited into the corridor she glanced back just long enough to see the Empress disappear in a beam of light.

"But what about the Empress?" she demanded in the relative calm of the corridor. The Doctor was kneeling on the floor that was thankfully still dry. She leaned around him to see Rose propped against the wall, unconscious, with blood still dripping from her nose. Her lips and chin looked a bit grizzly, like she had just bitten into something that fought back. She must have had another migraine attack when the Empress activated those particles in her and Lance. Donna's fists clenched at her sides at the thought of her former fiancé. She was still so angry with him, but now he was dead she had nowhere to direct her anger and it was making her feel a bit useless.

"She's used up all her Huon energy. She's defenceless!" the Doctor told her absently as he shifted Rose so he could pick her up.

Donna was frankly astonished he managed it, skinny as he was. Maybe she could have trusted him to catch her on the motorway after all.

A moment later Rose was safely in his arms in a bridal carry, her face pressed against the Doctor's neck and probably getting blood all over him.

"We need to get a move on," he said urgently as he began striding down the corridor to where he had parked his box. "The water's not up this high yet, but we need to get back to the Tardis before it reaches her, or she won't let us in."

"She?" Donna asked, half running to keep up with his longer steps. It was a bit unfair that he wasn't even breathing hard from moving that quickly carrying a whole extra person. Donna felt like she was running uphill with her sodden dress twisting around her calves.

"She doesn't like it when we get her floor wet," the Doctor explained in a way that wasn't really explaining anything.

They had reached the freaky blue box by then and the Doctor had Donna reach into his jacket pocket for his key.

Once inside the Doctor gently lowered Rose onto the jump seat and asked Donna to hold her still while he piloted the ship – and it was much easier to think of it as a ship once she was inside and could see all the alien technology hidden behind the wooden doors.

Rose stirred when they landed, her eyes fluttering open, but she was so unfocused that Donna wasn't sure she was actually conscious. The Doctor moved her aside to scan the young blonde with his whatchamacallit.

"Is she going to be alright?" Donna asked in concern.

The Doctor stood back slowly. "Yeah, I think so. Now that the Empress is gone and the base is flooded there's no particles left to activate except the ones in my pocket. And I'm certainly not going to be using them. She'll have a chance to recover."

"An' you still dunno what caused it?" Rose asked quietly, her words slurring tiredly, surprising both of them that she was lucid enough to speak coherently.

"Not yet, which is why you are on your way to the infirmary," the Doctor told her firmly, handing her yet another handkerchief to wipe her face with. "I'll join you as soon as I've seen Donna outside."

"I want to say goodbye," she objected.

"It's alright, sweetheart," Donna put in quickly. "You just get better."

"And what happened to the Empress?" Rose demanded, sounding a little stronger now. "Is everything OK?"

"It's fine," the Doctor promised soothingly. "The Empress teleported to her ship in orbit and fired on London, but with no Huon energy left she had no way to defend herself against the military. The ship was blown up about half an hour ago, local time."

"How do you know that?" Donna asked curiously. Maybe he was omniscient as well as a time traveller.

The Doctor shrugged. "It's on the local news. I had a quick look before we landed. Didn't want to end up back in the line of fire. And while we're on the subject of everything being fine…" He pulled his doohickey out again and this time aimed it at Donna. She gracefully allowed him to scan her, even though her heart was in her mouth at the reminder that the stuff Lance had given her was poisonous.

"All the Huon particles have gone. No damage, you're fine," he said triumphantly.

Donna laughed weakly. "Yeah, but apart from that, I missed my wedding, lost my job and became a widow on the same day. Sort of."

The Doctor's face fell. "I couldn't save him."

"Lance is dead?" Rose gasped. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Donna."

Donna looked away. "Why? Turns out none of it was real anyway."

"It was real to you," Rose pointed out.

"Yeah," Donna agreed, but she didn't want to think about the mess that was her love life, especially not with these two. Now that she had spent some time with them it was obvious that Rose and the other bloke, Mickey, couldn't be together, because she was in love with the Doctor and if the way he watched her now was any indication those feelings were not unreciprocated. "Still, I'd better get on home. It's been hours since the reception. They'll be worried."

"Best Christmas present they could have," the Doctor grinned.

Rose finished wiping the blood from her face and looked up at them both. "I'd forgotten that it's Christmas."

The Doctor nudged her gently. "Donna hates Christmas."

"Yes, I do."

"Even if it snows?" the Doctor asked with a grin, skipping down the ramp and pressing something next to the doors. He pushed them open with a flourish and Donna was amazed to see that it was actually snowing.

"Did you do that?" Rose asked with a weak laugh.

"Oh, basic atmospheric excitation," the Doctor said modestly and then laughed loudly at the astounded looks on their faces.

"Merry Christmas," Donna said, feeling cheerful for the first time since she had disappeared from the church.

"Merry Christmas," Rose echoed, leaning back tiredly, her eyes drifting closed. Donna quietly stepped away from her and headed for the doors. The younger woman looked like she could use a good sleep and Donna wasn't going to stop her from getting a nap where she could.

"So, what will you do with yourself now?" the Doctor asked her as she joined him outside. The street she saw every day had taken on an ethereal quality in the softly falling snow. It was beautiful and peaceful. Maybe a bit sad.

"Not getting married, for starters," she said, her thoughts whirring through all the things she had once told herself she wanted to do with her life, yet she had somehow never managed to do any of it. "And I'm not going to temp anymore. I don't know. Travel. See a bit more of planet Earth. Walk in the dust. Just go out there and do something." The more she thought about it the more she liked it. She didn't need a man to be happy, she could live her life in the here and now, do all the things she had always dreamed of and really start to _live_ her life for her. It was amazing the perspective you get after successive near death experiences.

The Doctor glanced back into the box to where Rose lounged on the small seat. "I'd say you could come with us, but I think we'll be having a few down days. We could come back and get you…"

"No," Donna said instantly, because experiencing everything life had to offer was one thing, from what she could see the Doctor's life was another thing entirely.

"Okay," the Doctor said just as quickly, almost like he had been expecting the rejection.

"I can't," Donna tried to explain.

The Doctor waved one hand dismissively. "Honestly, it's fine," he said. "Rose and I manage very well on our own."

"And Mickey?" she asked curiously. Because it was an odd situation, with the feelings Rose and the Doctor clearly had for each other to have her ex hanging about like a third wheel.

"Wants to settle on Earth."

"Ah." Donna turned her attention to her home where she could see her parents holding each other through the window. She really should get inside. "Am I ever going to see you again?" she asked, not sure what she wanted the answer to be. The man terrified her, but what she had experienced with him and Rose would change her life forever. The thought of never seeing them again was strangely unpleasant, but she had a feeling that the sort of trouble they had dealt with today was par for the course with them and she couldn't live her life like that.

"If I'm lucky," the Doctor said with a grin and Donna was pleased that he didn't seem upset by her decision to stay Earth-bound.

"Just promise me one thing," she insisted, nodding her head towards Rose. "Hold on to that girl. I think you need her more than you'll admit."

The Doctor gave her a soft smile at that. "Don't I know it."

He hugged her tightly then and Donna knew this was it. "Goodbye, Doctor. Tell Rose to take care."

"Will do," he said pulling back. She turned and began to walk through the settling snow to her parents' house, but she stopped at the door when the street was filled with the sound of the spaceship's engines. She looked back just in time to see the blue box fly upwards like a shooting star. With one last smile to herself, she went in to face the music.

* * *

The Doctor hated to wake Rose, but she looked uncomfortable squeezed on the jump seat like that and she could do with a proper sleep.

He roused her as gently as he could and led her down the corridors of the Tardis, watching each step carefully in case she fell.

The Tardis moved the med-bay closer than normal, but even so by the time the Doctor ushered Rose inside and had her lie down on the infirmary bed she was barely standing on her own and he had to support most of her weight.

"Why can't I sleep in my bed?" she asked with a pout.

"Because I need to monitor you and I can't do that in your room," he told her, rushing to get the things he needed. "I just have to take a blood sample and then you can sleep. I can do the rest of the tests while you're out as long as you don't mind."

"S'fine," she said laying her head on the pillow, watching him prepare the needle. "What do you think's wrong with me?"

He looked away from her, unable to meet her eyes, concentrating instead on finding a suitable vein. "I don't know."

"Is it something to do with what I did with the vortex?" she asked quietly.

"I don't know," the Doctor said again, unable to meet her eyes. "But it seems likely."

Rose was quiet for a long moment as he took the blood sample and he wondered if she had fallen asleep already, but then she spoke again, quieter and sadder than he had ever heard her. "What if I'm like Jack?"

"You're not," he told her adamantly, finally looking into her eyes that were now wet and teary. There was no way she could be. He would have known long before now. "Maybe I shouldn't have told you about that if it was just going to make you worry about stupid things."

He hadn't wanted to, even after he had managed to explain everything else she did under the influence of the time vortex, but once she understood that she had destroyed the entire Dalek fleet on the Gamestation she had demanded to know why Jack had felt the need to stay behind and 'rebuild the Earth.' They had argued for a long time until he had finally given in and told her what she had done and how much the ex-time agent's mere presence now tore at his time senses.

She had cried for a long time after and asked to go back anyway, even if it was just to explain why he couldn't stay with them, but Jack had already left in the short window between his previous self dematerialising with an unconscious Rose and his current self and a very awake and tearful Rose reappearing in the same place. He had refused to try again and had consoled her with platitudes about how if they ever ran into Jack again he would make it right.

"But what if I am," she said sadly. "You won't want me around anymore."

He dropped the needle and blood sample into a sterilised tray so he could take her face between both hands. "That will never happen," he said seriously, desperate to make her understand. "I will always want you around."

"Even if I make you ill?" she asked, but there was a hint of a smile there now and he knew he had succeeded in reassuring her.

"Even if you turn into a blue octopus with twenty tentacles," he said with a grin. "Now you should get some sleep."

She nodded heavily before letting her eyes fall closed. "Will you wake me if you find anything?"

"I will," he promised. By the time he had picked up the blood sample she was already asleep.

It was seven hours later that he realised they had never gone back for Mickey.


	5. Tyler and Jones Part 1

Hi! So this was planned for last week, but my laptop decided to die on me last Wednesday. Fortunately I had already posted this chapter elsewhere, so I can post it for you now, but I have lost everything else I had done, which is all of The Shakespeare Code and nearly all of Gridlock. I'm not too bothered about TSC as I wasn't happy with it anyway and it was going to have some serious rewrites, but Gridlock is another story. This also means that while I am rewriting and getting back my buffer between what's posted and what's written the next few chapters are going to take longer than before. So I'm sorry about that. And from now on I will remember to back up my work.

* * *

Rose actually didn't mind hospitals, as long as she didn't have to be the patient.

She was a bad patient.

Which was why when she woke the morning after the misadventure with Donna to find the Doctor still hovering about her, still running tests she had needed to use a great deal of patience not to snap at him. She had lost that battle eventually, which was when he reminded her of the promise she had made that he could run as many tests as he wanted.

Apparently there were a lot of them and that was only counting the ones that the Tardis was capable of performing. She had drawn the line at visiting the various alien hospitals he named. It hadn't helped Rose's mood when Mickey had joined them hours later and immediately took the Doctor's side. He had even tried citing her mum as a reason she should sit and be a good girl. After all, her mother would want her to take care of herself.

Suddenly she had felt a lot less guilty about the fact that the Doctor had somehow managed to not pick him up from Donna's reception as promised and had instead turned up three days later, after he had given up and had begun searching for a flat. Although as the Doctor had immediately provided Mickey with such excellent references from notable members of the royal family that the landlord waived the deposit and lowered the rent Rose rather thought the Time Lord had been forgiven.

Hours later, the Doctor had finally given up on his poking and prodding and had to conclude that there was, in fact, nothing wrong with her. She was perfectly healthy, completely human and she was free to go about her day. All he could come up with was that she had some kind of Huon allergy that had caused the migraines and nose bleeds. Possibly it was a left over side effect from her experience with the time vortex, like the opposite of an immunisation.

He had continued to watch her closely for several weeks anyway, until Rose was driven spare by his hovering.

This was all made much worse by the fact that she had still been grieving over leaving her mum in the parallel universe. She had wanted to find time alone to deal with her feelings, but the Doctor simply wouldn't let her. This had eventually led to a complete break down on her part, after which he held her for a long time in the library, consoling her, stroking her hair and generally being wonderful. It made her feel a bit silly for wanting to hide her tears away from him.

Every so often he would try to apologise to her for the decision she had been forced to make, but each time it came up she made it very clear that she had made the choice of her own free will and she didn't regret it. She hoped he was starting to believe it.

Mickey had left them as soon as his stuff was packed up. He called her every so often so Rose knew he was doing well. The Doctor had come through with his promise to call UNIT and now Mickey had a job he adored, working to defend the Earth from alien threats. From what Rose understood he was doing something with computers, but that sort of thing had always gone over her head so she just nodded and smiled when he talked about it.

About a month after Canary Wharf and Torchwood, Rose broached the topic of her mum's flat. They had gone back to the day after it had all happened and packed up everything of any sentimental value as well as the rest of Rose's clothes and the few alien trinkets left about the place. The rest she had left there, knowing that everyone would assume her mother was dead if most of her things were left behind. She had decided that was for the best, it would give their family and friends – none of whom would ever understand parallel worlds – closure.

She had wanted to leave her own name on the list of the dead, but the Doctor wouldn't hear of it. She didn't see the point as she never intended to come back to Earth, but he insisted she might want the option one day. She tried to tell him she would never voluntarily spend prolonged periods on Earth again, but he was resolute.

It was now six months on from Canary Wharf, at least in her personal timeline. She still missed her mum fiercely, but the thought of Jackie Tyler didn't make her want to burst into tears anymore. She would always regret that she could never see her mum, finally happy with the man she loved, but she wouldn't let it stop her living, just like she had promised.

Now, here she was, standing in front of a hospital in London with the Doctor at her side. He was gazing at something her human eyes couldn't pick up. The Tardis was parked behind them on the hospital grounds, close by for when trouble inevitably found them.

"So what is it?" Rose tried for a third time. Whatever it was he could see was mesmerising the Doctor; he hadn't said a word since bundling her out of the Tardis and gesturing impatiently at the hospital. As he had already told her she would be unable to see whatever it was he was fascinated by all she could do was stand there awkwardly.

"Plasma coils," the Doctor said eagerly. He had said the same thing when he had come barging into Shareen's front room, demanding she come immediately. It was the first time Rose had visited her former best friend since she had lost her mother and the poor girl already thought the Doctor – or John Smith as Shareen knew him to be – was trying to keep her away from her old life. His dragging her out of there only twenty minutes after dropping her off was not going to help Shareen's opinion.

"And what are plasma coils?" she asked impatiently.

"Oh, they're… coils of…" he trailed off at the look on her face and shrugged. "Never mind. The point is they're alien and they shouldn't be here."

"So we need to investigate," Rose agreed easily now that she sort of knew what had got him so excited. "You want to go undercover as a proper doctor? And I expect I get to be the cleaning staff, right?"

"Ooh, good idea," the Doctor said warmly. "But there's no time to get me on the approved doctors list and they won't just hire someone in off the street. There's a quicker way, though and don't worry, it doesn't include cleaning anything up."

Rose breathed a sigh of relief at that. Mopping up someone's vomit was not her idea of a good time, even if it did mean getting in to investigate. "How then?"

"We're going to check you in as a patient," the Doctor told her happily.

"What? No, why can't you do it?"

The Doctor gave her a look like she had just told him the sky was green. "Because I have two hearts and I rather think a basic check-up would reveal I'm not human. Wouldn't do much good undercover then, would I? Just tell them you're experiencing stomach pains. If you fake your symptoms well enough they should keep you overnight."

Rose puffed out a breath. "If I walk in there and tell them I have stomach pains they're going to do one very obvious test. Especially if you walk in there with me."

"Well, of course I'm going in there with you, what difference does that make?" he said obliviously. "What test?"

She rolled her eyes. "A pregnancy test."

The Doctor looked confused. "That's alright isn't it? It's not a hard one and once they know you're not, they'll assume it's something more serious."

"Fine!" she huffed and stormed up to the hospital entrance. He trailed along behind her, clearly not understanding her sudden bad mood. She felt bad for taking her irritation out on him, but he never seemed to realise the affect he had on her and days like this, where people were going to think they were together and make suggestions, always made it harder for her to remember that they weren't.

Halfway there she felt him slide one arm around her waist, her heart jumped at the contact, but she quickly realised he was making it look like she needed him to support her.

Rose was asked a series of questions at the reception desk, by a young brunette woman who seemed to think dealing with patients was a waste of her time. Apparently they should have gone to their local doctor first before coming to the hospital. The Doctor flashed the psychic paper at her and told her that he was Rose's doctor and was escorting his patient as he wanted to make sure she was admitted immediately, and soon Rose was being tucked into a wheelchair and wheeled off.

As expected she had been asked to take a pregnancy test – just to be sure – followed by a scan that had some complicated name Rose didn't remember, but the Doctor said was more commonly called a CT scan. The Doctor stayed with her the whole time, until finally she was placed in a small ward to await the results.

There were two other patients sharing the room. One older woman was asleep, but the other was chatting animatedly with a visitor. The Doctor pulled the curtains around her bed to give them some degree of privacy before speaking.

"I'll just wait 'til nearly everyone's asleep and then I can pop off and have a look around," he told her calmly.

Rose glared at him. "And how are you gonna do that? You're already pushing it hanging about here. Normal doctors don't walk their patients to the hospital and stay with them."

The Doctor stared at her in consternation. "There are other people here who aren't patients," he said nodding towards the other beds.

Rose drew in a deep breath. There were times that he was so alien she didn't understand how he managed to walk down the street. "He's probably her husband."

The Doctor shrugged. "Fine, we'll just tell them I'm your husband as well as your doctor."

Her head thunked back against the headboard. "They'll still kick you out when visiting hours are over," she pointed out as evenly as possible.

"What, they won't let your poor, concerned husband stay and hold your hand while you're in such agony?"

Rose snorted. "Course not. It's a hospital, not a hotel."

"Oh." He looked rather crestfallen, so Rose took pity on him.

"We're here, now," she said gently. "Go have a snoop about, then head back to the Tardis. I'll stay here and call you on the Tardis phone if anything happens."

He sighed. "Yeah, alright." He looked at her for a long moment. "Sorry I put you through all that for nothing," he said finally. "I thought it was the quickest way. I should have thought of something else."

"I'll manage," she said evenly. "Now get going or you won't be able to blend in with the other visitors."

* * *

The night was excruciating.

Because they had come in towards the end of the day she wasn't subjected to any more doctors wanting to ask questions, but she was unable to sleep with the constant beeping of equipment and the groaning from other patients. The few times she did drift off she was woken by nurses wanting to take her blood pressure, or asking if she needed any painkillers.

To keep them from getting suspicious she would ask for paracetamol each time. After that it got a bit tricky, because they didn't leave straight away and it would look odd if she didn't take them if she was in as much pain as she claimed. Once she actually did have to swallow the pills, but the other two times she was able to hide them in her fist until the nurse left and she could throw them away.

She tried to take a look around a couple of times, but the nursing staff kept shooing her back to bed. Even if she had managed to get past them she didn't know what she was looking for anyway and without the Doctor wouldn't be able to see them even if she did stumble across these plasma coil things.

The Doctor had called her when he got back to the Tardis, but his own snooping hadn't turned up much more than her own. He told her that the plasma coils were building by the hour and he was fairly certain that whatever it was would reach its zenith sometime in the early afternoon – hopefully after he returned for visiting hours.

Her biggest problem was that she was bored. Before she met the Doctor boredom was a common affliction that she put up with as best she could. Watching football with Mickey, listening to her mum ramble on about whatever the neighbours were up to, even just working in the shop day by day were all enough to bore her to tears, but that was her life, so she put up with it.

Now, though, she spent her days walking beneath alien skies with a man who made her heart beat faster every time he looked at her. She had saved civilisations, strolled beside frozen seas, visited long gone eras and seen the literal end of the world. There were no more boring days once you became the Doctor's companion.

Except for this one, apparently.

While partaking in what her mum would call 'lollygagging about in bed,' she let her mind drift back to the Doctor's suggestion the previous day that he pretend to be her husband. She had shot that one down instantly, but part of her regretted the opportunity to pretend, just for a little while, that he was hers and she was his. It would have been bittersweet though, when it came to an end it would have hurt that much more, knowing that he just didn't see her like that.

A doctor walked into the ward, followed by a group of students, all wearing white lab coats. The receptionist had mentioned something about this being a teaching hospital when they had been trying to sign in yesterday. This must be one of the classes.

The group went to the other two patients first. The older woman, whose name was Florence, was apparently suffering from dizziness due to low salt, because all she ate was salad. The second, younger woman, named Mary, was here because of a suspected stomach ulcer. Her upbeat attitude, despite her condition, amazed Rose and made her feel guilty for wasting so much hospital time when there were people here who really needed medical assistance.

Finally, they came to her. They assembled at the end of her bed, all looking at her expectantly, like she was the prized exhibit at the zoo. She shrank back into the covers a little and tried to focus on the lead doctor, ignoring the students.

"Now then, Miss Tyler, a very good morning to you," the lead doctor – whose name tag read Dr. Stoker – said kindly. "How are you today?"

"Um, still not so good," Rose said, careful to sound a bit pathetic.

Apparently having received all the information he needed from her, he turned back to the class. Rose felt a wave of irritation at being dismissed. "Rose Tyler," he said by way of introduction. "Admitted yesterday with severe abdominal pains. Jones, why don't you see what you can find? Amaze me."

A pretty young woman, dressed smartly in a blue shirt and black trousers underneath her lab coat, stepped up to her bedside, stethoscope in hand. She sat down on the edge of the bed, smiling widely at Rose. "I think I heard about you yesterday," she said agreeably. "You're the one who was brought in by her GP, right? And he stayed with you until the end of visiting hours?"

Rose nodded warily. She had known the Doctor's behaviour was unusual, but had been hoping that it would go unnoticed in the busy hospital.

"The nurses gossip," Jones said, by way of explanation. "They all think he's a bit sweet on you."

The denial had become so instinctive now, that she didn't even realise she was saying it. "Nah, he's just, um… a family friend," she said lamely.

"As time passes and I grow ever more infirm and weary, Miss Jones," Stoker said in a falsely sweet tone.

"Sorry. Right." Jones smiled and pressed the stethoscope to Rose's chest, listening to her heartbeat and lungs. Rose put up with it with as much good grace as she could muster, seeing as this was the third time this morning already.

"Miss Jones?" Stoker prompted.

The student sat back, frowning. "Er, I don't know. Could you be pregnant?" she asked hopefully.

Rose couldn't help the eye roll at that. As soon as the Doctor had said stomach pains she knew she would be getting this. "They did a pregnancy test," she said, a bit testily. "It was negative."

"OK, then," Jones said. "Stomach cramps?"

"That is a symptom, not a diagnosis. And you rather failed basic techniques by not consulting first with the patient's chart," Stoker said. "If you had done that you would have been able to see that Miss Tyler is awaiting the results of a CT scan, following a urine analysis which proved conclusively that this young lady is not pregnant."

He reached for the clipboard that was hanging from the end of Rose's bed, but as he took it in his hands a blue spark shot from the metal clip to his hand. He pulled back with a pained hiss. Rose's eyes widened at that. It looked exactly as the Doctor had described. The plasma coils must be gaining in strength now, if they were visible to human eyes.

"That happened to me this morning," Jones said wonderingly.

"I had the same thing on the door handle," another student piped up.

"And me, on the lift," added a third.

Stoker puffed up importantly. "That's only to be expected. There's a thunderstorm moving in and lightning is a form of static electricity, as was first proven by. Anyone?"

The students all started looking shifty, glancing at the ground, or each other as they tried to avoid Stoker's gaze. Rose suddenly remembered being back in school and doing exactly the same thing in the back of the class, praying the teacher wouldn't pick on her, even if she was sure she knew the answer.

But she was a different person now, and she actually knew this one. "It was Benjamin Franklin, wasn't it?"

Stoker looked surprised, but nodded anyway. "Correct."

Rose preened a little then felt embarrassed that at twenty two years of age she still craved the approval of a teacher.

"Moving on," Stoker said importantly, ushering the students out of the room.

As soon as they were out of sight Rose dived for her mobile and then hurried into the loo, already dialling the Tardis. It rang once and then there was a beep. The Doctor's overly cheerful voice greeted her. "Hi, Rose. I've stepped out for some reason, but I'm sure I'll be back before long. Leave a message, I'll be there soon." There was a pause and then the Doctor's tone darkened. "And if you're not Rose – and that's unlikely since no one else has this number – then you must have done something to her. In which case, I'll be there soon."

There was another beep and Rose sighed into her mobile. "Why are you threatening people on your answering machine?" she asked redundantly. Then she shook the thought away. "Never mind. Look, Doctor, I don't know where you've gone, but you might want to try sneaking back in here before visiting hours start. I think these plasma coil things are getting stronger faster than you expected. People are getting shocked all over the place and I just saw something spark. Whatever's happening, it's going to be soon."

She hung up, hoping the reason the Doctor hadn't answered was that he was already trying to get back into the hospital. She opened the door, almost hitting Florence in the face. "Sorry," she said quickly, reaching out to steady the older woman.

"Oh, it's no problem, dear," she said sweetly, patting Rose on the arm and passing her into the toilet.

Rose darted back to her bed, pulling the curtains around so she could get changed in privacy. She wasn't going to sit here waiting in her pyjama's any more. It was time to do some investigating of her own.

She felt much better once she was dressed. No longer acting the part of a patient she was also able to admit to herself that she had maybe been a bit short with some of the nurses and she had definitely been unfair to the Doctor. She straightened her shoulders as she walked right past the nurse's station and out of the ward. She would make it up to them by helping the Doctor figure this out. She would find some other way to apologise to the Doctor. Her imagination conjured up several ways she could do that, but she knew nearly all of them would get her thrown off the Tardis for good.

It was beginning to rain, she noted absently. She was fairly sure they had landed sometime in the early spring, so it wasn't too surprising, but she had been hoping that the brilliant sunshine from earlier would stick around so they could go for chips later and eat them in the park.

She tried to call the Doctor again, but he still wasn't answering. She hoped that whatever he was doing was bloody important, or she was going to rip him a new one whether she owed him an apology or not.

Rose ducked into another ward just as a flash of lightning lit up the room. The roll of thunder echoed immediately. That storm Stoker had mentioned must be almost directly overhead.

The windows in this room were facing the gardens and Rose was fairly certain she should be able to see the Tardis from here. Thinking maybe she could catch sight of the Doctor on his way in so at least she would know he was coming, she didn't immediately notice what was wrong with the rain.

It was raining upwards, like someone had turned the gravity upside down. She gaped in amazement, unable to tear her eyes away from it. Judging by the muttering the patients staying on this ward had noticed it too.

Thunder echoed around them again and it felt like the whole building might have been shaken by the lightning that struck it, except the noise and the light and the shaking weren't going away, in fact it was starting to feel like a giant had taken hold of the hospital and was shaking it about like a huge baby's rattle. Rose lost the battle to stay upright, rolling across the floor and smashing into the nearest bed. Around her cupboard doors flew open, scattering the contents across the floor. Glass smashed as delicate instruments hit the ground hard.

She clung onto the bedframe for several moments after the movement ceased, fearful it might start up again, but the room felt stable now. The light had faded, leaving the room seemingly dark in comparison.

That was when the screaming started. She struggled to her feet and dashed to the windows, not really knowing what to expect. That was when she realised the darkness wasn't being caused by an after image of the overly bright light.

They were on the moon. So naturally her phone began to ring.

"Where the hell have you been?" she demanded.

"I was buying flowers," the Doctor said on the other end of the phone. "Isn't that what you're supposed to do when visiting sick people in hospital?"

"I'm not really sick, you're not really visiting, and now the hospital is stuck on the moon and you're down on Earth," she said, voice rising with her irritation. She pushed it aside to deal with the matter at hand. "It was like a storm, but the rain was going up."

"An H2O scoop," he said quickly, and she could just picture him, hand running through his hair, making it stick up all over the place like a demented hedgehog as his brain ran a mile a minute, figuring everything out.

"Can you bring the Tardis up?"

"Yep," he chirped. "I'll just lock onto your mobile signal and be right up."

Rose glanced around the ward. So far no one was paying much attention to the girl who had managed to get a phone to work on the moon, but she was willing to bet that wouldn't last with the Tardis materialising right on top of them.

"Hang on," she said. "I'll find somewhere a bit more private and call you back."

She hung up, wondering where in the hospital was both big enough to park the Tardis and unpopulated enough not to cause a stir when it appeared.

"All right now, everyone back to bed, we've got an emergency but we'll sort it out. Don't worry," came a brisk voice. Miss Jones marched into the room with another student doctor following close behind, flipping the light switch as she passed it. Rose wondered how the electricity was still working if the hospital had been taken off the grid. Perhaps they had a back-up generator. That sounded like something a hospital might have, but it probably wouldn't last that long.

"It's real. It's really real," Jones was saying. "Hold on." She reached up to the window, intending to open it.

The other student caught her hand. "Don't! We'll lose all the air."

"But they're not exactly air tight," Jones pointed out. "If the air was going to get sucked out it would have happened straight away, but it didn't. So how come?"

The woman was obviously very intelligent and also good at keeping her head straight in a crisis and she had just offered Rose a solution to the most pressing problem they had right now. "Good on you," she said, moving back over to the window. "But if you're really feeling daring, I've got a better idea. Are there any outside areas around here? Somewhere we could go have a proper look?"

Jones was almost grinning at her. "There's a veranda by the patients' lounge."

"Perfect," Rose smiled back. "After you. I'm Rose, by the way."

"Martha," the young doctor replied, leading her out of the room. Her colleague remained behind, staring petrified out the window. Rose was glad she hadn't followed. While she understood the panic, they didn't have time for it and looking after someone so clearly out of their depth would slow them down when they needed to act fast.

They made it to the patients lounge without being stopped. The staff were too busy trying to keep everyone calm and the patients were more concerned with themselves than what a pair of young women were doing striding through a hospital on the moon like they were on a mission.

Rose took a deep breath as she stepped onto the veranda. It was peaceful out here and perfect for what she needed. Plants sat in their pots near the windows, but there was a big enough open space for the Tardis to land. From what she could see now that the initial shock was wearing off most people were staying clear of the windows and doors to avoid looking outside so hopefully it would go unnoticed that a spaceship was landing itself right in front of them.

"We've got air," Martha said, awed as she looked out onto the surface of the moon. "How does that work?"

"Hmm?" Rose scrolled through her contacts quickly and pressed call as soon as she found the Tardis' number. Fortunately Martha didn't seem to be expecting a proper answer as she leaned on the wall surrounding the veranda.

"I've got a party tonight. It's my brother's twenty first. My mother's going to be really, really…"

The Doctor answered, but Rose was watching Martha. "Now's good," she muttered into the phone and came to lean next to her new friend. "It's going to be alright," she said soothingly. "We are going to get everyone back to Earth and you're going to that party."

Martha laughed. "And how are we going to do that?"

Rose grinned and waved her mobile. "We'll use one of our lifelines. I've always liked phone a friend."

Martha stared at her. "That's never a phone!" she exclaimed, examining it more closely.

"Gift from a friend of mine," Rose told her smugly. "It's a little bit more advanced than what's currently on the market. She knew Martha would assume she meant it was a prototype or something she had gotten her hands on, not that it was from the future.

Martha's smile faded. "We'll never get a signal."

"Already did," Rose said proudly. She pressed the speaker button. "Say hello, Doctor."

"Hello, Doctor," his voice came back cheekily. She could hear the sound of the Tardis engines working to follow the signal back to her.

"No, but that's mad," Martha said giddily.

"And it's only gonna get madder," Rose told her happily. As she spoke the Tardis engines became louder, now echoing on the veranda and not coming through her phone. The beautiful blue box began to appear beside her and she took a big step back, pulling a gawping Martha with her.

Almost as soon as the Tardis landed the Doctor was running out the door, worry written all over his face. He grabbed her up into a hug, spinning her round once before releasing her. "Sorry! You were right, next time, I'll pretend to be the patient."

"Yeah, but then I would have been stuck on Earth worrying about you," she conceded. She suddenly realised something and pushed him back a step so she could look at him properly. "What are you wearing?"

The Doctor brushed imaginary dust off the shoulder of his suit jacket and straightened his tie. His blue suit jacket. With red pinstripes. "Fancied a change. Do you like it?"

"Wait, how did you do that?" Martha demanded incredulously, before Rose could answer. "Is it alien? Are you aliens?" She inched away from them. "Did you bring us to the moon?"

"Ooh, she's a bit twitchy, isn't she?" the Doctor said snarkily.

"Hang on! It's you, I saw you this morning on Chancellor Street," Martha declared. "You came up to me and took your tie off."

"Really? What did I do that for?" the Doctor asked, but he was grinning slightly.

Martha threw her hands up in the air. "I don't know, you just did."

Rose glared at him. "You can't sit still for five minutes can you?"

"It wasn't me," he insisted. "She must have imagined it." He winked at her, but Rose wasn't in the mood.

"Leave her alone," she said, jabbing the Doctor in the ribs with her elbow. She held her hands in front of her imploringly. "Martha, this is my friend, the Doctor. He is an alien. I'm not. I dunno what he was doing on the street, but I swear to you, we didn't do this."

Martha's eyes flickered to the Doctor and then back to Rose. "He said you were only pretending to be a patient. Why would you do that? You knew this was going to happen!"

"No!" Rose insisted. "The Doctor and I, we're just travellers, I swear. This is what he does, he helps people. And he saw these things outside so we investigated. We had no idea we were going to end up on the moon."

"And if I did, I would never have left Rose alone in here," the Doctor added helpfully.

Martha glanced between them. She still seemed wary, but she hadn't run off screaming yet, so that was a good sign. Rose held her breath, waiting for the verdict. If Martha ran off screaming about aliens and spaceships they might end up with more attention than they could handle.

"Alright, I believe you," Martha said finally, but she looked uncertain still, worried as she looked away from them and to the vision before her.

"Want to go back in?" the Doctor asked her gently.

Martha shook her head adamantly. "No way! I mean, we could die any minute, but all the same, it's beautiful."

"It's gorgeous," Rose agreed, staring up at the Earth in the sky.

"How many people want to go to the moon? And here we are."

"Standing in the Earthlight," the Doctor said reverently, nudging Rose gently.

"Bit poetic, that," she said softly.

"I have my moments," he said with a smile.

"Alright you two," Martha broke in. "You're the experts. What's happening? Is it extra-terrestrial, like you?"

"You're taking this very well," the Doctor told her, giving her an appraising look.

"I don't know, a few years ago it would have sounded mad, but these days? That spaceship flying into Big Ben, Christmas, those Cybermen things. I had a cousin. Adeola. She worked at Canary Wharf. She never came home," she said sadly.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said and Rose knew he was thinking about the many people that died that day. "We were there, in the battle."

Martha didn't appear to be listening, her own thoughts on the cousin she had lost. She shook herself after a moment, and turned away from the view of the moon.

"So, is it Mr. Tyler?" she asked the Doctor smartly. "Because I reckon that if we can travel to the moon, then we can travel back. There's got to be a way. Can you start ferrying people back in your box?"

"No, he's not..." Rose began. She really needed to stop doing that. People were going to think she was being defensive. It's just so many people thought they were together and she wished they wouldn't because it just made the whole thing more painful. "He's the Doctor."

Martha snorted. "Me too, if I can pass my exams. What is it then, Doctor Tyler?"

"Just the Doctor," the Doctor corrected. He began pacing about the veranda, looking for something.

Martha frowned. "How do you mean, just the Doctor?"

He looked up at her in surprise. "Just the Doctor," he repeated. Rose smothered a giggle. After 900 years he should be used to people questioning his name.

"What, people call you the Doctor?" Martha asked incredulously.

"Yeah," he replied indignantly.

"It's his name, not his job," Rose added helpfully.

"Well, I'm not calling him that," she said adamantly. "As far as I'm concerned, you've got to earn that title."

The Doctor sighed and scooped up a stone from the ground. "Well, I'd better make a start, then. Let's have a look. There must be some sort of…" He drew his arm back and threw the stone. A blue light lit up like a wall a few feet from the edge of the veranda. "Force field, keeping the air in."

"That answers your question," Rose said to Martha. The Doctor looked at her curiously, so she explained, "She was asking why the air wasn't sucked straight out."

The Doctor hummed approvingly.

"But if that's like a bubble sealing us in, that means this is the only air we've got," Martha said worriedly. "What happens when it runs out?"

"How many people in this hospital?" the Doctor asked her.

"I don't know. A thousand?" she guessed.

"One thousand people – suffocating."

"What's the point, though?" Rose wondered as Martha gasped loudly. "Anyone with this sort of technology could've just killed everyone in the hospital from space, right? So why drag it out?"

The Doctor turned his gaze skyward. "Head's up! Ask them yourself."

Rose and Martha looked up just in time to see three cylindrical spaceships fly overhead. Their engines made the whole hospital vibrate, but when they touched down it was quiet, smooth. Moments later the spaceships opened up and a column of large, roughly humanoid beings in spacesuits marched out in unison, all aiming for the hospital.

"Aliens," Martha gasped, forgetting that she was already standing next to one. "That's aliens. Real, proper aliens."

"Do you know who they are?" Rose asked quietly, biting her lip nervously.

The Doctor stared out at the aliens, his face betraying his concern. "Judoon."

* * *

The Doctor had Martha lead them to the hospital reception area. She directed them to a mezzanine area which overlooked the entrance and allowed them a good view of the Judoon without putting them at risk of drawing attention until the Doctor was ready for it.

He had only known the medical student for a few minutes, but she seemed like the sensible sort and definitely intelligent. While the latter was something he looked for in a new companion, sensible people didn't often last long. Not in terms of life expectancy, they just quickly realised that travelling with him lacked all kinds of common sense and being sensible people they decided to stop.

But Martha wasn't running away, despite the fact that no one was forcing her to remain. She was calm, collected and patient. All were important qualities for potential companions to have. More importantly still; Rose liked her. He couldn't have anyone on board that Rose wasn't comfortable with. Martha was the most promising candidate he had met since Donna.

They crouched down behind some plants, which probably weren't doing much for their visibility, but with all the other humans to blend in with it shouldn't be a problem. Through the windows he could see the Judoon marching through the force field.

"You've met Judoon before then?" Rose asked him quietly.

He nodded. "I've run across them a few times. Last time I saw them they were under contract with the Shadow Proclamation."

She looked up at him in surprise but before she could ask any more questions the main doors were opened and the Judoon began streaming into the hospital. The humans began to panic, screaming and trying to run further into the corridor. They hadn't yet realised that there was nowhere to run.

Martha was tense on his other side and he was concerned she would run down to try and help some of the people who were getting trampled in the stampede. He gripped her wrist tightly, sending her a look he hoped was convincing. She seemed torn, but stayed where she was, wincing when a teenaged boy was knocked over by an older man as they desperately tried to make it out of the reception area.

One of the Judoon, presumably the platoon leader, removed his helmet, revealing the head of a rhinoceros, complete with two nose horns. He immediately began to speak in his native language, an order to his soldiers to begin the search. The entire squadron drew their weapons as one.

"Search for what?" Rose muttered into the suddenly silent room. The Doctor shook his head. He had no idea yet, but his suspicions were being roused.

A young male, dressed in a white lab coat indicating he was some kind of doctor, approached the Judoon cautiously. "Er, we are citizens of planet Earth. We welcome you in peace." The Doctor was impressed despite himself. This young man was very brave to approach these hostile aliens. And his words and tone were non-threatening, unlikely to aggravate the situation further.

Despite this the unmasked Judoon pushed him roughly against the wall, shining a translation device into his face.

The young doctor whimpered. "Please don't hurt me. I was just trying to help. I'm sorry, don't hurt me. Please don't hurt me." Maybe not so brave then. But still, maybe Rose would prefer a male companion. In all his time with her they had only taken on male companions. But this one was a bit pretty and he didn't want to go back to spending all his time warning young men away from Rose. He had enough of that with Adam and Jack.

The translation device replayed the young man's words, identifying the language. The Judoon plugged it into his space suit to complete the download.

"Language assimilated," it said in a harsh, grating voice. "Designation Earth English. You will be catalogued."

He used another device to scan the young man. The Doctor couldn't see what it was from this angle, but it shone with a blue light.

"Category: human," the Judoon intoned, taking the man's hand and drawing a crude cross on the back of it. That meant the device was a DNA scanner, not harmful to the humans, just designed to identify a person's species, which went a long way to explaining why they were here.

"Catalogue all suspects," the Judoon ordered. The others moved further into the room, scanning terrified humans as they went and marking their hands.

His most pressing questions now answered, the Doctor allowed his gaze to wander across the reception. "Oh, look down there," he exclaimed. "You've got a little shop. I like a little shop."

"You and your little shops," Rose laughed quietly. "I wouldn't mind, but you never have any money, so what's the point?"

The Doctor gave her a mock glare although he was glad to see she was feeling less irritable. "It's not about buying things," he told her aloofly. "I just like browsing."

"Never mind that," Martha cut in. "What are Judoon?"

"They're like police," the Doctor explained. "Well, police for hire. They're more like interplanetary thugs."

"Hold on, I thought the Shadow Proclamation was like an outer space law book, or something," Rose said slowly. "What's that got to do with thugs?"

The Doctor thought about how best to make her understand. "It's actually an organisation. They wrote the laws, but they also enforce them. They're more like a court system and the police all rolled into one."

"And why would they want to bring a hospital to the moon?" she asked, chewing on her lower lip.

"They may not be working for the Shadow Proclamation right now," he pointed out. "In any case, this is neutral territory. According to galactic law, they've got no jurisdiction over the Earth, and they isolated it. That rain you told me about, the lightning? That was them, using an H2O scoop."

"If they're police, are we under arrest?" Marth wondered. "Are we trespassing on the moon or something?"

"If we are, they brought us here," Rose reminded her. "Think that'll work as a defence in court?"

"I don't think it's anything that simple," the Doctor said. "But otherwise, good point, I like it. They're making a catalogue. That means they're after something non-human, which is very bad news for me."

"Best get you out of sight, then," Rose said, climbing to her feet.

* * *

They ended up in an administrative office a few floors up. Rose had wanted to put some space between the Doctor and the Judoon and the Doctor wanted somewhere he could access the patient records, so Martha had suggested the office.

The Doctor had gone straight to a computer and was using his sonic screwdriver to hack his way into it. Martha had stationed herself outside the door to act as lookout, but that left Rose feeling like a bit of a loose end.

"If you've met some Judoon before, won't you be able to just explain who you are?" she asked. She knew they wouldn't recognise his current face, but they probably knew all about Time Lords and regeneration.

"The Judoon can be a bit single minded," he said distractedly. "I doubt they'll stop long enough for introductions. And if they don't believe me then I'll end up as suspect number one."

"They've reached the third floor," Martha reported, coming back into the room. "What's that thing?"

The Doctor waved it at her before going back to work. "Sonic screwdriver."

Martha huffed and looked at Rose like she expected her to be just as exasperated. "Well, if you're not going to answer me properly."

"He's not trying to wind you up," Rose assured her. "It really is a sonic screwdriver."

Martha looked back to the Doctor in amazement. "What else have you got, a laser spanner?"

"I did, but it was stolen by Emily Pankhurst, cheeky woman. Oh, this computer!" he thumped the monitor in frustration. "The Judoon must have locked it down. Judoon platoon upon the moon. Because I was just looking for something to do while Rose was visiting her friend. I wasn't looking for trouble, honestly, I wasn't, but I noticed these plasma coils around the hospital, and that lightning, that's a plasma coil. Been building up for two days now, so I convinced Rose to check in. I thought something was going on inside. It turns out the plasma coils were the Judoon up above."

"But what are they looking for?" Martha asked him curiously.

"Something that looks human, but isn't," the Doctor told her, attention still on the computer.

"Like you," Martha said pointedly.

"He's not a criminal," Rose assured her. "He's here to help."

Fortunately Martha seemed to believe her. "Haven't they got a photo?"

"Well, might be a shape-changer," the Doctor said absently.

"There're all sorts of species that look like they're human, but not," Rose told her. "The Doctor says it's a logical shape, not a surprise so many species have evolved this way."

Martha shook her head. "Whatever it is, can't you just leave the Judoon to find it?"

"If they declare the hospital guilty of harbouring a fugitive, they'll sentence it to execution," the Doctor said patiently.

"All of us?" Martha asked, horrified.

"Oh yes. If I can find this thing first. Oh!" He threw one hand up in frustration, shoving his chair back as the computer emitted a buzzing sound before the windows began shutting themselves down. "You see, they're thick! Judoon are thick! They are completely thick! They wiped the records. Oh, that's clever."

"What are we looking for?" Martha asked hurriedly.

"I don't know," the Doctor sighed. "Say, any patient admitted in the past week with unusual symptoms. Maybe there's a back-up."

"Just keep working. I'll go and ask Mister Stoker. He might know." Martha ran quickly out of the room, leaving Rose alone with the Doctor.

She watched him work for a minute. The screwdriver was poised over the computer, his blue suit rumpled while his hair stuck up in all directions. It was weird to see him in any colour other than brown, but it looked nice. A bit less Victorian, more modern, while still staying true to his normal style.

"Sorry about earlier," she said finally. "And last night. I didn't mean to be a bitch."

He glanced up at her, smiling and she knew she was forgiven. "You tried to tell me it wasn't a good idea, I just got caught up in it," he admitted.

"Probably just as well though," Rose confessed. "I would have gone spare sat on Earth hoping you were alright up here."

"I really am sorry I left you here all alone."

Rose shrugged nonchalantly. "You're here now. Besides, I found Martha almost as soon as the building stopped shaking."

He grinned. "She seems brilliant."

"Yeah, she didn't panic like the rest of them. Knew straight away we must be getting air from somewhere."

"Hmm," the Doctor agreed. He ducked under the desk with the sonic between his teeth. A few seconds later she could hear it whirring as he tried to restore the back up.

"How long do you reckon the air will last?" she asked him worriedly.

"Depends," the Doctor's voice floated back to her from under the desk. "The more energy people expend on panicking the quicker it will run out. I'd say an hour at the very most, but we'll be lucky if it lasts that long."

"What about the Tardis?" Rose asked, as an idea came to her. "She's got that oxygen factory, right?"

The Doctor poked his head out from under the desk. "We could open all the vents and let the Tardis oxygenate the air," he agreed. "But as thick as the Judoon are, even they'll notice if the oxygen levels start to increase and they do have the technology to detect her."

"Oh," Rose deflated.

"Aha!" the Doctor whooped triumphantly. He crawled out and stood, his face stretched into a wide grin. "Done it. Come on, let's tell Martha the good news while we wait for it to reboot." He grabbed her hand and led her from the room.

* * *

They found Martha very quickly. She was already on her way back to them when the Doctor quite literally ran into her.

"I've restored the back-up," he told her happily, steadying her. Rose jumped when something banged against a nearby door, like something had been thrown against it.

"I found her," Martha said breathlessly.

"You did what?" the Doctor asked in confusion.

The door Rose had been eyeing suddenly burst outwards and two figures emerged, both dressed all in black leather wearing motorcycle helmets with blacked out visors.

"Run!" the Doctor yelled, grabbing Rose's hand to pull her along with him. She could hear footsteps clomping along behind them and knew they were being pursued. She could only hope Martha was keeping up through the narrow corridors.

The Doctor led the way through the people who were crowded into the corridor, many of them still trying to find out what was going on, and then into the stairwell. He tugged Rose towards the stairs descending to a lower level, but they nearly ran head on into a troop of Judoon.

The Doctor didn't hesitate. He turned, still pulling Rose along with him and ran the other way, pushing Martha, who had now ended up in front of them, to go up instead. On the next floor they burst into the corridor.

Rose chanced a glance back, trusting the Doctor to guide her. The Judoon hadn't followed, probably assuming they were just another group of scared humans. But one of the motorcycle helmet wearing bad guys was still chasing them. She had no idea where the second one had gone.

"Martha, the radiology lab," the Doctor called and Rose looked back in front to see Martha veer to the left, throwing open a door.

The Doctor ushered both women through before following and pulling the door closed behind him. He brandished his sonic screwdriver at the lock, shouting at Rose and Martha to get behind the screen.

"When I say now, press the button," he yelled, moving to what Rose assumed was the actual X-ray machine.

"But I don't know which one," Martha wailed.

"Then make your best guess," Rose said, quickly pushing Martha towards the equipment. The thing chasing them had already knocked down one door, she doubted this one would fare much better.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket and Rose, on high alert already, jumped at the sensation. She dug it out and glanced at the display, answering quickly. "Now's not a good time Mickey!"

"Yeah, but listen, there's this hospital, it just disappeared from the street," Mickey said excitedly.

The Doctor was sonicking the X-ray machine, shoving the screwdriver right into the wiring, but Martha darted to a shelf and pulled down the operators manual, frantically thumbing through it. Rose could have laughed at the ridiculousness of reading the instructions while some hopped up biker was bettering down the door. "It's always the biggest button," she said helpfully. "I already know about the hospital," she told Mickey, who was still talking animatedly down the phone.

The door splintered and gave way, allowing the biker-man to tumble inside.

"Now!" the Doctor shouted, pointing the X-ray machine at the leather creature.

Martha finally gave up on the book, scanning the equipment in front of her before slamming both hands down on a yellow button, which just happened to also be the biggest one on the console.

The creature got the full blast of radiation, shuddering for a long moment before falling to the floor.

"What did you do?" Martha asked into the silence that followed as Mickey was demanding to know what the noise had been.

"Increased the radiation by five thousand per cent. Killed him dead," the Doctor said calmly.

Rose frowned. "That isn't like you." The Doctor always tried to give their enemies a chance, even if it put their lives at risk to do so.

"He wasn't really alive," the Doctor said with a shrug.

Martha was staring at him in consternation. "But isn't that going to kill you?"

Rose, who had been staring at the now still body on the floor, her phone held out in front of her so Mickey could hear the whole conversation, snapped her gaze up to study him carefully. He seemed fine. There was no sign of regeneration that she could see.

The Doctor was completely unconcerned. "Nah, it's only roentgen radiation. We used to play with roentgen bricks in the nursery." He glanced over at them. "It's safe for you to come out. I've absorbed it all. All I need to do is expel it." Rose followed Martha around the screen as he began to roll his shoulders like he was trying to work out a kink. "If I concentrate… I can shift the radiation… out of my body and into one spot. It's in my left shoe!" he exclaimed, lifting his leg into the air and wiggling his foot about. "Here we go, here we go. Easy does it. Out, out, out, out, out. Out, out. Ah, ah, ah, ah! It is, it is, it is, it is, it is hot. Hold on."

He hopped on the spot a few times, before taking hold of his foot and pulling off the shoe, sock and all, before dumping it into a bin for medical waste. "Done!"

Martha and Rose were both gaping at him. "You're completely mad," Martha breathed.

"You're right," he agreed cheerfully. "I look daft with one shoe." He tugged off the other shoe and dumped that one in the same bin with its pair. "Barefoot on the moon," he said happily.

"Don't come crying to me if you step in something," Rose said wryly.

"Yeah, hang on, what's going on?" Mickey's voice demanded from Rose's mobile.

"We're on the moon," Rose told him, allowing some of her wonder at the situation to colour her voice.

"We've got this under control," the Doctor said quickly. "Mickey, I need you to get UNIT to the hospital site. They need to keep the area clear. We can't have people crawling all over the hole in the ground when the hospital comes back."

"It's coming back, then," Mickey asked worriedly.

"I'm working on it," the Doctor said shortly.

Rose bid Mickey a quick goodbye, promising to call him back and explain everything later and hung up the phone.

"So what is that thing?" Martha asked, standing over the thing on the floor. "And where's it from, the planet Zovirax?"

"You said it wasn't alive," Rose reminded him. "So is it some kind of robot?"

"It's just a Slab," the Doctor said, kneeling to examine it more closely. "They're called Slabs. Basic slave drones. See?" He thumped the Slab on the chest. "Solid leather, all the way through. Someone has got one hell of a fetish."

"You said you found her," Rose said to Martha. "So you know who this Slab thing was working for?" The Doctor stood and wandered back to the X-ray machine, rooting around in the wiring.

Martha nodded. "It was that woman, Miss Finnegan. It was working for her, just like a servant."

"My sonic screwdriver!"

"She was one of the patients," Martha continued. "But –"

"Oh, no. My sonic screwdriver," the Doctor was lamenting.

Rose sighed, knowing she wouldn't get any sense out of him for the next couple of minutes, so she focused on Martha. "Don't worry, he's listening."

"She had a straw like some kind of vampire," the other woman was saying, eager to get her story out.

"I loved my sonic screwdriver," the Doctor said with a pout.

"Doctor!" Rose said irritably, surprised when Martha echoed her. "We can mourn it later," she added.

"Sorry." He threw the screwdriver over his shoulder as if he had forgotten all about it. "You called me Doctor," he pointed out to Martha with a grin.

"Anyway?" Martha said with a touch of frustration in her tone. "Miss Finnegan is the alien. She was drinking Mister Stoker's blood."

"Oh my god!" Rose gasped. She hadn't particularly liked the man, with the way he spoke to his students and ignored the patients, but she was sorry to hear he was likely dead.

The Doctor tilted his head back in thought. "Funny time to take a snack. You'd think she'd be hiding. Unless. No. Yes, that's it. Wait a minute. Yes! Shape-changer. Internal shape-changer. She wasn't drinking blood, she was assimilating it," he said, snapping his fingers as he figured it out. "If she can assimilate Mister Stoker's blood, mimic the biology, she'll register as human. We've got to find her and show the Judoon. Come on!" he called, running from the room.


	6. Tyler and Jones Part 2

Hi! Thanks for all the reviews, favourites and follows. I'm glad to see people are enjoying my story.

I have my new laptop now - it's so much faster than the old one and I love it. It took me a little while to get back into the swing of writing even after only a few days away from it, but that might have something to do with the fact I'm rewriting stuff I had already done. I'm half way through The Shakespeare Code and should be ready to start posting it next week. There may be a bit of a wait later on as I do like to be ahead, because I always end up thinking of things I really want to add or change once I've moved onto the next chapter.

I'm worried I give too much away in this chapter for what's coming later, but I guess I'll keep my fingers crossed that it's only obvious to me because I know it's there. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the latest chapter.

* * *

A few minutes after they left the X-ray room the three of them were hiding behind a water dispenser. The Doctor held out one hand to stop either of the women from moving, just as the other Slab wandered past.

"That's the thing about Slabs. They always travel in pairs."

"Like you two," Martha said suggestively.

The Doctor hummed happily. "I guess so, yeah."

Rose glanced up at him, a smile playing about her full lips. "S'better with two," she said softly.

"Must be a bit… intimate, the two of you in that tiny little box," Martha said pointedly. "Oh, wait a minute, who was that on the phone then? Are there more of you?"

"Oh. Humans!" he said derisively. "We're stuck on the moon running out of air with Judoon and a bloodsucking criminal, and you're asking personal questions? Come on." He stood, brushing off the knees of his blue suit before offering Rose a hand to help her up.

Martha snorted. "Humans! I like that. You do too good a job passing as one of us, to think that little of us."

The Doctor turned away from her. He thought too much of them, that was the problem.

He stepped directly into the path of a Judoon scanner. "Non-human," the Judoon intoned, reaching for its weapon.

"Not that good a job," Rose said anxiously.

"And again," the Doctor called, once more breaking into a run, dragging Rose after him and trusting Martha to follow.

They made it back to the floor below without incident, if you didn't count the Judoon nearly shooting them with lasers a couple of times. Once they were able to slow to a walk it quickly became obvious that the humans were starting to suffer from lack of oxygen. Patients were slumped on the floor and in the chairs lining the walls. A couple of doctors were passing out tanks of oxygen, but it wasn't enough. Soon people would begin to suffocate.

"They've done this floor," the Doctor said, noticing the black cross marks on the backs of all the hands he could see. "Come on. The Judoon are logical and just a little bit thick. They won't go back to check a floor they've checked already." He considered that for a moment. "If we're lucky."

"How much oxygen is there?" Martha asked quietly.

He turned, thinking she was talking to him, but she had knelt next to another doctor, who was holding an oxygen mask to a woman's face.

"Not enough for all these people. We're going to run out." The woman sounded defeated, like there was no hope at all.

"How are you two feeling?" the Doctor asked worriedly. Human lungs were not particularly efficient. While his respiratory bypass allowed him to process as little air as possible while still maintaining his full faculties, the two women in his company were not as lucky. "Are you all right?"

Rose nodded. "I can manage, for now."

"I'm running on adrenaline," Martha told him with a small smile.

"Welcome to my world," the Doctor sighed.

"What about the Judoon?" Martha asked hopefully and he knew she was thinking that the Judoon would have to return the hospital if even they were struggling to breathe. He hated to disappoint her.

"Nah, great big lung reserves. It won't slow them down." He glanced up and down the corridor. They weren't too far from where they had encountered the Slab earlier. "Where's Mr. Stoker's office?"

"It's this way," Martha said, leading them into a nearby office.

The door was lying on the floor just outside, testament to the strength of the Slabs who had broken out of this office earlier. The framed certificates and diplomas decorating the walls had been left askew, with furniture overturned. In the centre of it all lay the still and very pale body of an older man in a lab coat. His eyes stared up at the ceiling.

"She's gone. She was here," Martha insisted.

"She can't have gone far," Rose assured her. "She'll be running out of air same as the rest of us. We'll find her."

The Doctor knelt by Mr. Stoker's body. At the point where his neck met his shoulder there was a small round wound, but it wasn't bleeding. "Drained him dry. Every last drop. I was right. She's a plasmavore."

"What's she doing on Earth?" Martha demanded.

"And why hide in a hospital of all places," Rose asked curiously. "I mean, that's why I had to be the patient, because someone might have realised you're an alien if they ran tests on you."

The Doctor smiled at her. His Rose, always asking good questions and Martha was pretty good too. "Plasmavores aren't that different to humans biologically speaking. Human technology isn't advanced enough to pick up the differences yet, unless they did a DNA scan and there's no reason they would do that in a normal hospital. She came here to hide. Like Ronald Biggs in Rio de Janeiro. What's she doing now? She's still not safe. The Judoon could execute us all. Come on." He launched himself to his feet and towards the door in a smooth movement he was very proud of.

"Wait a minute," Martha called. She crouched beside Stoker's body, reaching out with a slightly shaking hand to close the man's eyes. The Doctor and Rose waited respectfully.

"Think, think, think," he prodded himself frantically. "If I was a plasmavore surrounded by police, what would I do?" he asked, his eyes falling on a sign on the opposite wall.

"Turn yourself in, knowing you," Rose half joked.

But he was barely listening. An MRI. Magnetic Resonance Imaging. There was a lot of damage to be caused with one of those and with the hospital in a state of panic there would be no one in there to stop her. "Ah. She's as clever as me," he said regretfully. "Almost."

There was only one thing he could think to do now. Only one way to stop her, but Rose wouldn't like it. In fact he was fairly certain she would actively oppose it. She needed to be far away from here, which meant he would need to use Martha as the distraction.

There was a crash from the end of the hall, followed by screaming as those humans still conscious enough tried to get away from the now aggressive aliens.

"Find the non-human. Execute," the lead Judoon ordered.

"Rose, I need you to go back to the Tardis," he began.

"No, I'm not hiding away," she said insistently.

"You won't be hiding," he tried, words tumbling over each other in his haste to get them out. "You know what you were saying earlier, about venting the engines? Well, now you're going to do it." He held up a hand before she could argue. "We don't have time. People will start suffocating soon and the Judoon will have something else to worry about rather than tracking her. Just go inside and stand facing the console so the front door is to your left. Then flip the blue switches at the top."

She nodded. "Front doors to the left, blue switches at the top. Got it."

The Doctor chanced a look down the corridor. The Judoon hadn't noticed him yet, but there wasn't much time left. "Go!" he said urgently.

Rose turned on her heel and ran back up the corridor towards the stairwell. It would take her at least a few minutes to get there and back. He would have to be quick.

"Martha, stay here. I need time. You've got to hold them up," he told her, feeling a little frantic as he saw Rose disappear in a crowd of panicking humans.

"How do I do that?" she asked, terrified.

Good question. If it was Rose standing in front of him he might have tried for a kiss, under the guise of saving the world. He might have even tried it with Martha, but somehow that seemed like a betrayal of the girl he had just sent running to the safety of the Tardis. With that option out he did the only other thing he could think of.

He took her face between his hands and licked her from her jaw and over her cheek, stopping at her temple. The chemicals in her make up made for an unpleasant taste, but he ignored it.

Martha flinched back from him, her nose screwed up in disgust and her hand flying up to wipe at her face. He caught her wrist quickly. "Don't wipe it off," he told her sternly. Then he turned and ran for the MRI room.

* * *

Martha watched after the mad bloke she had been following around all afternoon, fighting the urge to scrub away the alien saliva drying on her cheek. He was a bit fit, and under other circumstances she might be rather smitten, but honestly, who went around licking people? She smiled at the thought that Rose probably wouldn't have objected.

She squared her shoulders and turned to face the Judoon advancing down the hallway towards her. Rose was on her way to the veranda and the Doctor was stopping the blood sucker that had killed Mr. Stoker. If the only way she could help was to buy them time to do their jobs then she would do it to the best of her ability.

"Now listen, I know who you're looking for," she said as calmly as she could manage when the Judoon came closer. "She's this woman. She calls herself Florence."

They were unconcerned with anything she had to say. The nearest Judoon raised his scanner, holding it to her face. She could feel the warmth from the light playing over the lower half of her face.

"Human," it said dismissively when the light turned blue. "Wait. Non-human traits suspected. Non-human element confirmed." The other rhino-aliens started drawing their weapons, aiming them right at her and Martha thought she might faint, she was so scared. "Authorise full scan. What are you? What are you?" The Judoon pushed her back against the wall, getting in so close all she could see was its wrinkled skin and the horns that could gore her right through the middle.

She closed her eyes and waited to die.

* * *

His fears were proved accurate before he even stepped into the MRI room.

Lights flashed as the MRI crackled with energy and the static in the room was making his skin prickle. Electromagnetic discharge flickered over the machine and the overhead lights went out.

Miss Finnegan was behind a partition, flicking switches and turning dials. She was a tiny, older woman, with curly grey-blonde hair pulled back behind her head. She moved easily about the equipment wearing a pale blue dressing gown and slippers.

The Doctor glared at her through the plexi-glass. He needed to get her to trust him if his plan was going to work.

"Have you seen them?" he said, making his voice sound excitable and a bit idiotic as he pointed back out to the hallway. "There are these things. These great big space rhino things. I mean, rhinos from space! And we're on the moon! Great big space rhinos with guns on the moon. And I only came in for my bunions, look." He lifted one foot up to show her. "I mean, all fixed now. Perfectly good treatment. The nurses were lovely. I said to my wife, I said I'd recommend this place to anyone, but then we end up on the moon. And did I mention the rhinos?" He said this so fast his tongue could barely keep up with it, but it seemed to have the desired result. Miss Finnegan looked at him like he was a complete moron.

"Hold him," she said sternly.

The Doctor barely had time to look behind him before the second Slab was holding both arms behind his back.

* * *

Rose hated to leave the Doctor, but she knew he was right. She was the only one other than him who could get into the Tardis and he knew a lot more about plasmavores and MRI's than she did. Divide and conquer was a tactic that often worked for them. The Doctor had the best chance of stopping the blood sucking alien and Rose would make sure there was air to breathe while he did it.

She burst through the Tardis doors aiming for the right hand side of the console. The air was thicker here and she gulped in a few greedy lungfuls as she moved deeper onto the ship. She could see from here exactly what switches he wanted her to flip, but the Tardis could be quirky about operating the console. If she didn't stand in exactly the right spot then she might end up without air herself.

Her eyes fell on a bouquet lying on the jump seat. There were a variety of different flowers, no roses thankfully, all in various shades of pink and yellow. Rose felt her cheeks heat up at the sight of them. He really had gone and bought her flowers. She was irrationally glad that he hadn't had the opportunity to give them to her on the ward. She probably would have combusted from embarrassment when he gave her a bouquet in the colours she knew he most associated with her.

Rose took a few seconds to make sure the main doors were precisely to her left and then took a deep breath. She flicked the switches, muscles tensed to run in case she had made a mistake. After two and a half years of living on the Tardis she was still terrified of actually operating her.

There was a whoosh as something happened. Rose looked about hoping for some sort of sign she had done it right. She was keen to get back to the Doctor before he did something stupid, but couldn't risk leaving until her job was done. "Is that it?" she asked the Tardis, not really expecting an answer. "Did I do it?"

The scanner abruptly turned itself on. Rose moved around the console to see it more clearly. It showed an image of the patients lounge from the veranda. The semi-conscious teen that had collapsed near the windows was moving, albeit sluggishly, but far more deliberately than he had been capable of a few moments before. It was working.

It would take a while for the air to permeate the entire hospital, but Rose couldn't wait any longer.

Before she could make it to the door the console dinged. Alarmed, Rose turned back, half expecting to see something on fire.

Instead something long, thin and silver shot out of a slot she had never noticed before, zooming about a foot upwards before it started to fall. Rose rushed forwards, hand outstretched to catch whatever the Tardis was trying to give her.

It was a sonic screwdriver. Somehow the Tardis had known the Doctor had fried the old one and made a replacement without him even needing to ask.

"You are brilliant," she told the ship enthusiastically.

* * *

"Er, that, that big, er, machine thing? Is it supposed to be making that noise?" the Doctor asked hesitantly, still playing the part of clueless human.

Miss Finnegan smirked at him. "You don't need to bother with that anymore."

The Doctor blinked at her, genuinely confused this time. "But isn't that a magnetic resonance imaging thing?" he barrelled on with the act. "Like a ginormous sort of magnet? I did magnetics at GCSE. Well, I failed, but all the same."

The plasmavore gave him a condescending look. "The magnetic setting's now increased to fifty thousand Tesla."

He pretended to consider that. "Oooh, that's a bit strong, isn't it?"

"It'll send out a magnetic pulse that'll fry the brain stems of every living thing within two hundred and fifty thousand miles," she told him, proudly. "Except for me, safe in this room." She looked him sceptically. "But I suspect you already knew that."

There was no way she could know who he was. "What?"

"Drop the act," she told him with a conspiratorial wink. "I saw you last night, visiting your little blonde friend."

He looked at her closely. Now he was looking at her more closely, nearly nose to nose, she did resemble the older woman who had shared Rose's ward. He had thought her to be asleep at the time, but apparently not.

"That's my wife," he told her quickly. "Complications with the pregnancy." Rose might kill him for that one, but after all her concerns about it the day before it was the only thing he could think of that might sound plausible. "Thought I'd get the bunions checked while I was here."

Miss Finnegan was undeterred. "You're quick, I'll give you that. I would have believed it, but you see, I overheard your wife on the phone. She knew all about the plasma coils." She glanced down at his blue suit. "I'm assuming Torchwood. You're not disciplined enough for UNIT."

Cover well and truly blown the Doctor's adrenaline began to surge, especially at the mention of Torchwood. How long would that agency continue to haunt them? The MRI was sparking harder now. There were only minutes left.

"Fine, you got me," he told her quickly, mind working furiously. "But if that machine goes off it will destroy all life on the side of the Earth facing the moon."

"And the other half will survive. Call it my little gift."

"Why would you do that?" he demanded desperately.

"With everyone dead, the Judoon ships will be mine, to make my escape." She flicked the last few switches and turned to give him her full attention.

"Why the hospital?" He had to keep her talking while he thought of something else.

"It's the perfect hiding place," she said grandly. "Blood banks downstairs for a midnight feast, and all this equipment ready to arm myself with should the police come looking."

"Alright, so you drank Stoker's blood to blend in," he stalled. It was a race now, between the Judoon blasting their way in here and the MRI exploding. He could only hope Rose would stay in the Tardis where she would be shielded from the pulse.

Miss Finnegan held up one hand that was marked with a black cross. "I'm as human as you."

The Doctor stilled. She didn't know he was an alien.

"Right. Maybe that's why they're increasing their scans," he told her, letting some of his triumphant feeling bleed into his tone.

Her head snapped up. "They're doing what?"

"The Judoon in charge, he said, no sign of a non-human, we must increase our scans up to setting two," the Doctor lied easily. "They'll be here any second. You won't have time to get away."

She studied him for a moment. "A man in your position would say anything." She paused. "However, I can't take the chance. I must assimilate again."

The Doctor pulled back as far as he could with the Slab still bracing his arms. "Assimilate what?" he asked fearfully, not entirely faking it this time.

Miss Finnegan reached into her handbag. She pulled out a striped bendy straw, her smile turning sinister. "Steady him!"

The Slab used its superior strength to force the Doctor to his knees. He allowed it, putting up a token fight so it didn't look too easy. A black leather arm yanked his head to one side, displaying his neck, and the prominent veins there, to the plasmavore.

"What are you doing?" the Doctor pleaded. This was not going to be pleasant.

"I'm afraid this is going to hurt," Miss Finnegan confirmed. "But if it's any consolation, the dead don't tend to remember."

She jabbed forward with the straw, finding his jugular vein on the first try and began to suck.

* * *

Contrary to what she had believed, the Judoon did not kill Martha.

The full scan took several minutes. While she was glad because that gave the Doctor more time to do whatever he was planning, she had never been so scared in her entire life.

Breathing was becoming easier again, her lungs no longer burning quite as much, although she suspected the air was quite thin still. Rose must have turned on those vents the Doctor had mentioned.

"Confirm human," the Judoon intoned. "Traces of facial contact with non-human. Continue the search."

Martha looked up gratefully as a booklet was thrust into her hands. It was written in an alien language that she had no hope of understanding.

"You will need this," she was told formally.

She was about to ask why when movement caught her eye. Rose was standing a few steps up the corridor, holding another of those screwdriver things.

The two women exchanged a long look and Martha knew that the blonde needed to get to the Doctor as soon as possible. He could use the screwdriver and Rose couldn't afford to be waylaid by trigger happy Judoon. The Doctor had scanned as non-human. She still wasn't sure about Rose, no matter how much she claimed to be human.

The Judoon had begun to turn away from her. "What's this for?" she said, probably a bit too loudly.

"Compensation," the Judoon said imperiously as Rose slipped behind him.

"Good," Martha said, trying to keep his attention as long as possible. "Because I reckon you violated at least a dozen of my rights in the last few minutes alone."

Rose waved once she was clear. The Doctor had been right, the Judoon really were thick. Now she just needed to convince them to go to the MRI lab next.

* * *

The Doctor was fighting a losing battle with consciousness when Rose stumbled into the MRI room.

The Slab, sensing a new threat, dropped him unceremoniously on the floor, forcing the plasmavore to stop drinking. The black, leather clad servant stood protectively in front of its master and their fallen victim. Rose was glad she had tucked the new sonic screwdriver into her pocket out of sight.

She drew in a sharp breath when she realised who the alien was, glad that now the Tardis was filtering the air she was able to do so. "It's you," she said uselessly. Florence, she remembered the woman's name was. She hadn't suspected Miss Finnegan, the plasmavore, could be the seemingly sweet little old woman she had shared a room with overnight.

"Yes, yes," Florence said, waving her hand dismissively. "Your partner there already admitted that you work for Torchwood, so I hope you're not going to pretend otherwise."

Rose glanced down at the figure on the floor. The Doctor was pale and shaking, clinging to awareness with everything he had, but his eyes held a peculiar satisfaction. Rose wasn't sure why he would want to be nearly drained of every drop of blood in his body, like Stoker, but she recognised his plan face well enough to know when to play along.

Footsteps thumped just outside. "Yep, Torchwood, that's us. If it's alien it's ours," she quoted. "I reckon that includes you." The footsteps stopped right outside. "Although, under the circumstances, I suppose I might let the Judoon have you."

Four Judoon stormed into the room, weapons raised. Martha was right behind them, trying to force her way through.

"Now see what you've done," Florence gasped theatrically. "This poor man is faint with fright." She glared at Rose threateningly as she stepped closer to the Doctor, who lay horrifically still on the ground.

"Scan him," the Judoon ordered. "Correction. Deceased."

"What?" Rose gasped. "No, he was awake a moment ago."

She ducked around the Slab and knelt at the Doctor's side, her hands flying to either side of his chest. His hearts were still in his ribcage.

"Let me through. Let me see him," Martha was yelling.

"Stop. Case closed," the Judoon said, not letting her pass.

Rose rested her cheek over the Doctor's right heart. There was nothing. A tear dripped down her nose onto his jacket.

"But it was her," Martha was saying angrily. "She killed him. She did it. She murdered him."

Rose felt utterly numb. The plasmavore, the Judoon, a hospital on the moon. None of it mattered anymore. The Doctor was dead and she didn't know how to save him, she wasn't sure what to do without him. The screwdriver was useless, she only knew a few of the settings, and none of those were capable of restarting his hearts.

"Judoon have no authority over human crime."

"But she's not human," Martha insisted.

"Oh, but I am. I've been catalogued," Florence said, holding up her marked hand.

"But she's not! She assimi…" She stopped, looking between the Doctor and Florence. "Wait a minute. You drank his blood? The Doctor's blood?"

Her tears were coming thick and fast now, soaking the Doctor's brand new suit jacket. The voices in the room around her seemed far away and unimportant. She couldn't understand why he wasn't regenerating. She hated the thought of him changing his face again so soon, but losing him altogether was inconceivable.

Martha had grabbed the scanner from the nearest Judoon and held it up, aiming it at Florence.

Florence held out her hands in invitation. "Oh, I don't mind. Scan all you like."

"Non-human," the Judoon announced.

The colour drained from Florence's face. "But, what?"

"Confirm analysis."

The plasmavore's voice took on a simpering tone. "Oh, but it's a mistake, surely. I'm human. I'm as human as they come."

"He gave his life so they'd find you," Martha whispered, awed.

"Confirm," the Judoon announced. "Plasmavore, charged with the crime of murdering the child princess of Patrival Regency Nine."

Florence gave up all pretence at that point. "Well, she deserved it! Those pink cheeks and those blonde curls and that simpering voice. She was begging for the bite of a plasmavore!"

There was a thump beneath Rose's cheek. And then another. She sat back, her jaw hanging open in bewilderment. His face was no longer a frighteningly grey pallor.

"Then you confess?" the Judoon pressed.

Florence scoffed. "Confess? I'm proud of it! Slab, stop them!"

The slab moved to attack and Rose threw herself down over the Doctor protectively, but the Judoon shot it, unconcerned. It was instantly atomised.

A hand came up to Rose's waist, holding her against the Doctor's body. She lifted her head from where it was pressed against his neck. His eyes opened to slits. And then he winked at her. She wasn't sure if she should be relieved or angry at that point.

"Verdict, guilty. Sentence, execution."

Florence ran behind the screen and at first Rose thought she was trying to hide. A moment later a sign above the machine reading 'Magnetic Overload' lit up. "Oh no," Rose breathed. She didn't really know what an MRI was, but anything with the word overload in it couldn't be good.

"Enjoy your victory, Judoon, because you're going to burn with me. Burn in hell!" Florence screeched.

All four Judoon fired on her, leaving only a pile of ash on the floor where she had been standing.

"Case closed," the Judoon intoned.

"But what did she mean, burn with me?" Martha asked fearfully. "The scanner shouldn't be doing that. She's done something."

The Judoon turned their scanners on the MRI machine. "Scans detect lethal acceleration of monomagnetic pulse," one said emotionlessly.

"Well, do something! Stop it!" Martha demanded.

"Martha, it's OK," Rose told her. The Doctor would be able to sort it.

"Our jurisdiction has ended. Judoon will evacuate." With that all four Judoon turned and marched from the room.

Martha followed close behind. "What? You can't just leave it. What's it going to do?" her voice floated back from the corridor.

The Doctor sat up instantly. His colour was nearly back to normal and he seemed almost perfectly healthy despite the seeping wound on his neck. He was breathing normally.

"You can't go! That thing's going to explode and it's your fault!" Martha was screaming outside.

Rose smacked the Doctor's arm. "That's for scaring me."

"Sorry," he said cheerfully, not sounding like he meant it at all. He hopped to his feet and pulled her up after him.

He dashed to the other side of the screen, talking a mile a minute. "It's a Time Lord trick; extreme meditation reducing the heart rate to almost nothing, while simultaneously holding my breath. Like I said, Judoon are a bit thick, they registered no heartbeat and assumed I was dead."

Martha had come back into the lab while he was talking and stood there, openly gawping at him.

"What about the machine?" Rose asked, far more used to the Doctor's strange abilities and idiosyncrasies.

"Ah, yes," he said, looking down at the machine that was sparking violently now. He patted his pockets for a few seconds before a mournful look passed over his face.

"Looking for something?" Rose asked, holding up the replacement screwdriver and tossing it to him.

He caught it easily. "How did you…?" He shook his head and ducked under the machinery, the sonic's whir almost indistinguishable from the loud buzzing of the MRI.

Martha grabbed Rose's arm, pulling her back to the relative safety of the other side of the room, just as a particularly big burst of sparks burst from the overloading equipment.

"Doctor!" Rose screamed frantically.

The machine gave a final angry buzz and then began to shut down, the sparks no longer dancing across the surface of the machine.

"Ha!" the Doctor cried, climbing out from beneath the equipment.

Rose breathed out a sigh of relief. "Are we safe then?"

"Yep, safe as houses," the Doctor announced, pocketing his new sonic screwdriver. "This way."

He ran past them and out into the corridor. Rose and Martha shared an aggrieved look before following.

They found him in the ward a couple of doors down. He was staring out the window at the Judoon who were now piling back into their spaceships at speed. They hadn't realised that the MRI had been switched off.

"Come on, come on, come on, come on, please," he was muttering. "Come on, Judoon, reverse it."

"What, they'd send the hospital back to Earth even though they think the MRI's about to blow?" Martha asked incredulously.

"You heard them," the Doctor said with an angry snort. "Outside of their jurisdiction. But in this case, that actually does us a favour."

Rain began to patter against the windows. Rain that was going up.

"It's raining, ladies," the Doctor said happily. "It's raining on the moon."

There was a loud crash of thunder. Rose and Martha shared a look before running to find something sturdy.

* * *

They were all rattled around a bit during the transfer, but it was apparent almost immediately from the light streaming in through the windows that they were back on Earth.

Rose and the Doctor walked back up to the Tardis hand in hand. They had left Martha to help her patients in peace although the Doctor had looked like he wanted to say something. He still seemed deep in thought.

Rose left him to it and just enjoyed the companionable silence. He would tell her when he was ready.

She called Mickey back on the way. He was irritated that she had hung up on him, but let her off the hook rather easily. Too easily really, but Mickey had always been the forgiving type.

"Alright then," the Doctor said once they were safely back in the vortex. "Want to explain this?" He held up the new sonic screwdriver like it was an explosive device.

Rose shrugged. "The Tardis gave it to me when I came back to open the air vents," she explained.

The Doctor stared at her and then glared up at the time rotor. "What are you playing at?" he demanded and Rose knew he wasn't talking to her this time.

"What's wrong?" she asked quietly "I thought it was a good thing."

"Oh, yeah, it's brilliant," he agreed. "Brand new sonic screwdriver, exactly when I needed it, except it takes hours just to generate the hardware and then the software needs to be installed. She would have had to start making it before I even lost the old one. And you're not supposed to do that!" he insisted, again talking to the Tardis.

The rotor pulsed and Rose got the impression that the Tardis was irritated with him.

"The Tardis exists across all of time and space," the Doctor told Rose, an explanation she had heard before a couple of times. "Theoretically it's possible that she could know I would need the new screwdriver and make it in advance, but her programming should prevent that."

Rose frowned. "Why? That sounds dead useful."

"Yeah, except she can see all possible futures and we'll only experience one of them. I could end up with a bazillion sonic screwdrivers."

Rose laughed. "Well at least you'd always have a spare."

He grinned. "I was thinking. We should offer Martha a trip."

Rose blinked, rather taken aback, both at the subject change and what he was suggesting. While they had taken other people on board from time to time it had either been her that initiated it, as with Adam and Jack, or Mickey, who had asked to come along. As far as she knew, other than her the only time the Doctor had invited someone along in all the time she had been with him was Reinette.

And that was an avenue Rose did not want to go down. The Doctor had never wanted to talk about Madame Du Pompadour after he had come back through the fireplace the final time and she had let him keep his silence on the matter, not really wanting to talk about it herself. But she was fairly certain he had feelings for the French courtesan, feelings that made her want to hide in her room and never come out. Martha was a beautiful woman, and intelligent too. Rose knew she could never compete with that.

But the bouquet was still sitting right there. A blatant reminder that he cared for her, maybe not in the way she dreamed about, but he loved her nonetheless. "Why?" she asked at last.

The Doctor was oblivious to her inner turmoil. "To see if we want her to come aboard full time," he said as if it were obvious.

"And why would we want her to come along full time?" Rose asked acerbically.

The Doctor frowned. "I thought you liked her."

Rose softened. "I did. I do. I'm just… confused."

The Doctor studied her for a long moment. "You need more people in your life," he said at last.

Whatever Rose had been expecting it wasn't that.

"It's different for Time Lords," he continued, by way of explanation. "We tend to be quite solitary by nature. Don't really need as many emotional connections as humans do. Tried to avoid them wherever possible to be truthful. I'm a bit of a renegade in that sense. I've always enjoyed having people around me, but I've got you and that's enough for me."

Rose's heart swelled at that and she smiled encouragingly at him.

"Humans need those connections," he went on. "The more the better. You're a very social species."

Rose nodded slowly, understanding where he was going with this. "And you don't think I've got enough connections."

"Not anymore, no," he said regretfully and she knew he was referring to the loss of her mother.

"I've still got Mickey," she pointed out. "And I was visiting Shareen before this whole thing started."

The Doctor snorted. "I'll give you Mickey. He might be a bit of an idiot, but he's always been a good boyfriend."

"Just a friend now," she corrected.

He grinned at her. "But Shareen?" he said. "Do you really consider that a meaningful relationship these days? Apart from today when was the last time you spoke to her?"

Rose furrowed her brow in thought. She had never felt able to confide in Shareen when it came to the Doctor and where they really went on their travels. As much as she sometimes missed the easy friendship they had shared as schoolgirls, the truth was their relationship was strained at best. Rose hadn't called her in ages and the last few times they had stopped at the estate to visit her mum Rose hadn't bothered to see Shareen.

If she was completely honest with herself, even if the Doctor hadn't burst in on them yesterday the visit probably wouldn't have lasted much longer anyway. She wasn't even sure why she had gone in the first place. Maybe she was subconsciously trying to reach out for connections herself.

"You need someone besides me and Mickey," the Doctor said gently, taking her silence for agreement. "I've been thinking about this for ages. I even asked Donna, but she said no. Martha's the first person we've met since then that I think would be a good fit."

"Blimey, you have been thinking about it for ages." That was six months ago for them. The same day she had lost her mother and he was already trying to fill the hole in her life. She didn't know if she should be angry or grateful.

Martha was brilliant. And she had distracted the Judoon allowing her to slip by and stop the plasmavore from draining the Doctor dry. And if she hadn't delayed the Judoon in the first place they might have burst in before Florence drank his blood and they would have killed him on the spot as the only detectable alien in the room.

"Yeah, alright," she agreed finally. It was only one trip to start with. They could always change their minds later.

He smiled warmly and she knew she had made the right choice. "Now, be honest," he said, stepping closer to her with a wary look on his face. "Is the suit really that bad?"

Rose took a deep breath before answering, fighting to keep a straight face. She looked him up and down deliberately, drawing it out. While she was partial to the brown suit, the blue fit him just as well and the colour really suited him. Just as he was starting to look worried she let a smile touch her lips. "It'll do."

He chuckled. "I'm glad it meets your approval."

"Tell you what, though," she said thoughtfully. "Plasmavore. Reckon that's near enough a vampire, right?"

They both laughed as he swept her into his arms and spun her around giddily.

* * *

Leo's party went about as badly as predicted.

Between her parents sniping at each other, Annalise making pointed comments about Martha's experience on the moon, and Tish and Leo seeming to go out of their way to make the situation worse, it was no surprise when the whole thing blew up and spilled onto the street.

This time it was Annalise that broke first.

"I am not staying in there to be insulted!" she screeched as she stormed out of the Market Tavern.

Martha followed along with the rest of her family. She regretted leaving before the fancy food they had ordered was even delivered to the table. She had worked up quite an appetite today and it was rare, once things reached this point in a family get together, that anyone would feel like continuing once the scene was over with.

"She didn't mean it, sweetheart. She was just saying you look healthy," her dad said pleadingly.

Her mum was not in the mood to help. Not that she ever was when it came to Annalise. "No, I did not. I said orange."

Annalise gasped theatrically. "Clive, that woman is disrespecting me," she said in that breathy little girl voice that she apparently thought was attractive. "She's never liked me."

"Oh, I can't think why, after you stole my husband," her mum said scathingly.

"I was seduced. I'm entirely innocent. Tell her, babe," Annalise begged.

"And then she has a go at Martha, practically accused her of making the whole thing up," Francine continued as if she hadn't spoken.

Martha hated that she always got drawn into the drama. All she wanted was to be left out of it. "Mum, I don't mind. Just leave it."

"Oh. I've been to the moon!" Annalise mocked. "As if. They were drugged. It said so on the news."

Francine scoffed. "Since when did you watch the news? You can't handle Quiz Mania."

"Annalise started it. She did. I heard her," Tish put in helpfully, never able to resist a dig at their father's girlfriend.

"Tish, don't make it worse," Leo told her, as if he hadn't been just as bad a few minutes ago.

"Oh, come off it, Leo. What did she buy you? Soap. A seventy five pence soap," Tish said with a sneer.

Annalise huffed. "Oh, I'm never talking to your family again!" she said for what was probably the fiftieth time as she stomped off in the direction of the car park.

"Oh, stay. Have a night out with Clive," Francine said insincerely.

Clive ran a few steps after her then stopped. "Don't you dare! I'm putting my foot down."

"You coming?" Annalise called, not stopping to look back.

"This is me, putting my foot down," he yelled after her before giving up and following after his girlfriend.

"Doing it for the last twenty five years!" Francine put in, taking a giddy joy from the argument.

In the increasing distance between them Martha could just make out her dad continuing to plead with Annalise. Sometimes it worked, but more often it didn't.

"Clive, stop, now!" her mum shouted, incensed that he was leaving their son's birthday party and starting to walk after them.

"Mum, don't. I – " Tish sighed and followed, Leo close behind.

Martha considered following. The argument would continue for a while yet, possibly drawing a crowd if it became animated enough. Or she could go back in. Get some of that food in her and spend the rest of the evening with Leo's girlfriend and daughter, who had more sense than to follow the rest of them out here.

But Martha just wanted to go home. She'd had a catnap earlier, so she wasn't completely shattered after her afternoon of running about on the moon, but she was still feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything she had experienced, still not quite believing it was all real. A quiet night in could be just what she needed.

A movement caught her eye and she looked up to see the Doctor leaning nonchalantly against a wall. He was wearing a brown suit now, with a long brown trench coat over the top, but otherwise he looked exactly as he had on the moon, testament to the fact that she hadn't dreamed the whole thing. Rose was nowhere to be seen, but given how close the pair seemed Martha suspected she was nearby.

He winked at her and disappeared around the corner. So there was a fourth option. She could follow the Doctor and spend some time with the only two people she felt she could really relate to at the moment.

Her feet began to move without her consciously making a decision. She rounded the corner expecting to see him right before her, but while she had hesitated he had made it all the way to the end of the alleyway and now stood next to his blue box, with Rose leaning casually against the door.

She jogged over to join them. "I went to the moon today."

"A bit more peaceful than down here," he replied and she knew he had heard the altercation outside the restaurant. She flushed at the thought of these two seeing her family like that.

Rose elbowed him in the ribs, but didn't say anything. Martha wondered if this was a regular thing, him putting his foot in it and her letting him know about it.

"You never even told me who you are," she pointed out, not wanting to dwell on her family's problems.

"The Doctor," he said as if that answered all her question. He nodded towards his blonde friend. "Rose Tyler."

"What sort of species?" Martha asked, feeling a thrill at the question. "It's not every day I get to ask that."

The Doctor pulled himself up to his full height. "I'm a Time Lord."

Martha snorted. "Right! Not pompous at all, then."

Rose laughed, throwing her head back in delight. "Oh, you'll fit in fine."

"We just thought since you were such a big help and I've got a brand new sonic screwdriver which needs road testing, you might fancy a trip," the Doctor said with a shrug.

Martha gaped, unable to believe what they were offering. "What, into space?"

"If you want," Rose said easily. "We haven't been to an alien planet in a while."

Martha imagined it for a moment. The three of them squeezed into the phone box, like Bill and Ted, travelling the stars. She had been fascinated by the moon. What else was out there? However, practical as always, Martha couldn't forget her responsibilities. "But I can't," she said regretfully. "I've got exams. I've got things to do. I have to go into town first thing and pay the rent, I've got my family going mad." She had worked too hard for too long to give it up for a fantasy now.

The Doctor smirked. "If it helps, we can travel in time as well."

"Get out of here," Martha exclaimed. She could believe in space travel, she had already done it herself, but time travel?

"He's telling the truth," Rose reassured her. "She can go anywhere, any when."

"Come on now, that's going too far." But she wanted to believe it so badly.

The Doctor gave her a wry grin. "I'll prove it."

He moved Rose to one side, opening the door and slipping through, only allowing Martha a glimpse of a green glow before the doors closed behind him.

A few seconds later the spaceship made that strange vworping sound that made her heart race faster in excitement, slowly fading from sight. She reached out one hand to the place where it had been, half expecting it to still be there, a trick with mirrors for the express purpose of making her look like an idiot.

"If he's not back in a few minutes, I'll kill him," Rose said conversationally.

"He wouldn't leave you," Martha said, feeling absolutely sure of that even though she had only known them for an afternoon.

Rose sighed. "I hope not."

Rose needn't have worried. Barely ten seconds after it had disappeared the spaceship began to rematerialise right in front of her. She stepped back hurriedly, not sure what would happen if it appeared in the same spot she was standing in.

The Doctor came to the door and again there was that warm glow from within as he slipped out. He held his tie in his hand.

"Told you," he said simply, slipping it back on over his head and tightening the knot.

Martha suddenly remembered the first time she had seen him, not on that veranda , but on the street, before she even made it in to work. He hadn't known what she was talking about at the time. Because he hadn't done it yet! "No, but, that was this morning. Did you? Oh, my God. You can travel in time. But hold on. If you could see me this morning, why didn't you tell me not to go in to work?"

"Crossing into established events is strictly forbidden," he said importantly. "Except for cheap tricks."

"Besides, you helped save the Earth today," Rose told her. "If you hadn't been there, we may not have been as lucky."

Martha grinned. "And that's your spaceship?" It really was like Bill and Ted, complete with time travel.

"It's called the Tardis. Time and Relative Dimension in Space," the Doctor explained. There was a deep fondness in his tone. Like all boys with their toys he obviously took great pride in his ship.

There was one problem. As much as she had loved the movie, Bill and Ted had ended up flying through time with people hanging on outside the phone box. As the new girl on board she expected she would be the one hanging on. "Your spaceship's made of wood. There's not much room for three of us."

The Doctor and Rose only smiled. "Take a look," he said smugly, pushing open the door and stepping aside to let her by.

The room was enormous, spanning around a centrepiece that looked like every science fiction fan's perfect image of a spaceships control panel. The floor was made of grating and she could see more of the internal workings of the ship underneath. Coral struts ringed the room and there were round things on the wall that circled the entire space.

"No, no, no," Martha whispered. She ducked back out in amazement, running to one side so she could see behind the ship. From out here it was tiny. The same on the other side. "But it's just a box. But it's huge. How does it do that?" she demanded, ducking back inside, the Doctor and Rose following her in. "It's wood. It's like a box with that room just rammed in. It's bigger on the inside."

Rose giggled and Martha looked back at her askance. Her new friend was watching the Doctor, biting her lip to prevent herself from laughing again.

"Is it? I hadn't noticed." He was mocking her. But Martha didn't care, she couldn't. Not in the face of all this.

He chucked his coat over one of the railings. "Right then, let's get going."

Rose sniggered. "She hasn't actually said yes yet," she pointed out.

"But is there a crew, like a navigator and stuff? Where is everyone?" Martha asked, still stunned into disbelief.

"Just us," the Doctor told her, starting to throw levers in preparation for taking off.

"She doesn't really need much of a crew," Rose clarified. "I swear she could fly herself if she really wanted to. Probably do a better job of it than him, too."

"Oi!" the Doctor protested, but there wasn't much heat in it.

"You keep calling her 'she', like it's alive," Martha said wonderingly.

"That's because she is," the Doctor confirmed. "And sentient."

Martha stared at him. She really couldn't tell if he was pulling her leg or not.

"Just one trip to say thanks," the Doctor went on. "And then we'll see."

Martha had a tonne of questions. She wanted to ask why only one trip, what 'we'll see' meant, what being on a sentient spaceship entailed, but if she started down that route she might never stop. "Do you invite everyone you lick on board?" she asked instead, trying to keep the tone light and teasing.

"You licked her?" Rose asked incredulously. She looked resigned as if the Doctor really did go around licking people all the time.

"That was a genetic transfer," the Doctor said quickly, looking at Rose as he said it.

Rose looked between them for a moment then shook her head. "Even the Tardis doesn't have space for everything and apparently every one that he licks."

"Oi! I'm not that bad," he insisted, ducking behind the central column. Martha suspected he was trying to hide his flushed face from them.

"Well, then. Close down the gravitic anomaliser, fire up the helmic regulator. And finally, the hand brake," he said loudly, punctuating each name by pressing and flicking switches. He looked up at Martha, his hand already on what was probably the aforementioned brake. "Ready?"

"No!" Martha blurted. She wasn't sure if she meant it or not. She was terrified, but she had never felt as excited either. She noticed Rose had taken a hold of the console with both hands and did the same, bracing herself as best she could.

"Off we go," he said, throwing the final switch with a flourish.


End file.
